#8206 HIGH 8.2.0 (: os.fork() [Errno 12] Cannot allocate memory

Zarro Boogs per Child bugtracker at laptop.org
Tue Sep 23 14:25:20 EDT 2008


#8206: os.fork() [Errno 12] Cannot allocate memory
------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
   Reporter:  dsd       |       Owner:  marco                 
       Type:  defect    |      Status:  new                   
   Priority:  high      |   Milestone:  8.2.0 (was Update.2)  
  Component:  sugar     |     Version:  not specified         
 Resolution:            |    Keywords:  8.2-757:- polish:8.2.0
Next_action:  diagnose  |    Verified:  0                     
  Blockedby:            |    Blocking:  8522                  
------------------------+---------------------------------------------------

Comment(by cscott):

 Replying to [comment:15 dsd]:
 > "ulimit -u" suggests a 1024 process limit per user. Seems unlikely, but
 next time this appears we should check we aren't hitting that limit...

 The man page for fork says:
 {{{
        EAGAIN fork()  cannot  allocate  sufficient memory to copy the
 parent’s
               page tables and allocate a task structure for the child.

        EAGAIN It was not possible to create a new process because the
 caller’s
               RLIMIT_NPROC  resource  limit  was  encountered.  To exceed
 this
               limit, the process must have either  the  CAP_SYS_ADMIN  or
 the
               CAP_SYS_RESOURCE capability.

        ENOMEM fork()  failed  to  allocate  the  necessary  kernel
 structures
               because memory is tight.
 }}}

 We're getting ENOMEM (12) not EAGAIN (11), so the problem appears not to
 be a ulimit.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/8206#comment:17>
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