Re: How to diagnose a kernel memory leak

[Zwane Mwaikambo <zwane@arm.linux.org.uk>]

On Sun, 8 May 2005, Bruce Guenter wrote:

> Greetings.
> 
> I am trying to diagnose a slow kernel memory leak, and am having no luck
> in pining it down.
> 
> I am currently running unpatched 2.6.12-rc3 (x86 on Gentoo, I saw the
> same symptoms with gentoo-sources 2.6.11-r6 and 2.6.11-r4.  Over the
> course of several days, the server in question has the amount of
> available memory (free minus buffers+cache) gradually decrease.  If I
> leave it go, it does eventually thrash itself to death after about a
> week (give or take).  The rate is about 150MB per day (the system has
> 2GB of RAM total so it takes several days).  The working set of
> processes remains the same through the whole period at between 50-150MB
> (depending on if you count VSZ or RSS).  Nothing shows up in dmesg
> except for a couple of one-time lockd and nfs messages  (the system uses
> two remote filesystems).  The local filesystems are ReiserFS on a 3Ware
> 7500-4 controller, and the NIC is an Intel E100.

Try looking at slabtop(1) output after a few days.
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