Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Arwed von Merkatz <v.merkatz AT gmx.net>]

On Thu, Sep 23, 2004 at 01:08:21PM +0200, Arwed von Merkatz wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 21, 2004 at 06:43:49PM +0200, Arwed von Merkatz wrote:
> > On Mon, Sep 20, 2004 at 08:20:26AM -0700, Eric Sandall wrote:
> > > Shall we update util-linux?
> > > 
> > > -sandalle
> > 
> > Updated in devel and test.
> 
> Just to inform everyone, I downgraded util-linux to 2.12d in devel and
> test since umount seems to be broken in 2.12e.
> 
> umount worked as root, but as user (with correctly configured fstab) it
> just hang with 100% cpu usage, downgrading util-linux fixed it.

And updated again, this time to 2.12g which works :)

> > > ----- Forwarded message from Andries.Brouwer AT cwi.nl -----
> > >     Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 00:05:02 +0200 (MEST)
> > >     From: Andries.Brouwer AT cwi.nl
> > > Reply-To: Andries.Brouwer AT cwi.nl
> > >  Subject: OOM & [OT] util-linux-2.12e
> > >       To: linux-kernel AT vger.kernel.org
> > > 
> > > Just released (on ftp.win.tue.nl in /pub/linux-local/utils/util-linux)
> > > util-linux-2.12e.
> > > 
> > > The reason for this release were complaints that mount and umount
> > > OOM the kernel when the number of mounts is large.
> > > And indeed - I tried with 30000 mounts and the OOM-killer killed
> > > everything in sight, including X's console, making X exit, killing
> > > all remaining processes.
> > > 
> > > The new versions have been polished a little bit so as not to waste
> > > too much memory, and now survive the 30000 mount/umount test for me.
> > > Further polishing is needed for the case of large numbers of mounts;
> > > when /etc/mtab is not a symlink to /proc/mounts then umount -a has
> > > quadratic behaviour (it updates mtab after each unmount) and that
> > > gets terribly slow.
> > > 
> > > About OOM: I am still of the opinion that the default state of the
> > > kernel must be one where OOM does not occur and malloc() tells us
> > > that we are out of memory. A system that suddenly decides to kill
> > > all processes is really very poor and unreliable.
> > > Users can enable other behaviours if they don't care about reliability.
> > > 
> > > About mount: I wondered whether I should rewrite [u]mounts's handling
> > > of /etc/mtab so as to be a bit faster. But it seems a waste of time -
> > > /proc/mounts has many advantages: automatically up-to-date, correct
> > > also when namespaces are used, much faster. On the other hand, /etc/mtab
> > > contains mount options that are sometimes needed later.
> > > If it were possible to store the mount options in the kernel, making
> > > them visible in /proc/mounts, then we could forget /etc/mtab altogether.
> > > 
> > > People have asked repeatedly for a way to mark lines in /etc/fstab
> > > so as to make clear that such lines are managed by some GUI or other
> > > external program. Labels like "kudzu".
> > > In this release I added a comment convention for /etc/fstab: options
> > > can have a part starting with \; - that part is ignored by mount
> > > but can be used by other programs managing fstab.
> > > 
> > > If we would put the mount options in /proc/mounts, and introduced
> > > a comment convention (say, the part starting with \: is ignored by
> > > the kernel but can be used by programs reading /proc/mounts),
> > > then /etc/mtab can die. Comments? Better solutions?
> > > 
> > > About util-linux and stuff: I have maintained various packages
> > > for ten years or so - it may be time to pass things on to someone else.
> > > Write to aeb AT cwi.nl if you are interested in taking over or
> > > co-maintaining kbd or man or man-pages or util-linux.
> > > 
> > > Andries
> > > -
> > > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" 
> > > in
> > > the body of a message to majordomo AT vger.kernel.org
> > > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> > > Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> > > 
> > > ----- End forwarded message -----
> > > 
> > > 
> > > --
> > > Eric Sandall                     |  Source Mage GNU/Linux Developer
> > > eric AT sandall.us PGP: 0xA8EFDD61  |  http://www.sourcemage.org/
> > > http://eric.sandall.us/          |  SysAdmin @ Inst. Shock Physics @ WSU
> > > http://counter.li.org/  #196285  |  http://www.shock.wsu.edu/
> > > 
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> > 
> > -- 
> > Arwed v. Merkatz                              Source Mage GNU/Linux 
> > developer
> >                                                     
> > http://www.sourcemage.org
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> 
> -- 
> Arwed v. Merkatz                              Source Mage GNU/Linux 
> developer
>                                                     
> http://www.sourcemage.org
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-- 
Arwed v. Merkatz                              Source Mage GNU/Linux developer
                                                    http://www.sourcemage.org