Description of problem: I did rsync -a --verbose / /mnt/sdc/ and forgot to specify --one-file-system. Rsync went on copying /proc, and when it accessed /proc/kcore the kernel crashed. > rsync ... (...) proc/irq/4/ proc/irq/4/smp_affinity proc/irq/48/ proc/irq/48/smp_affinity proc/irq/49/ proc/irq/49/smp_affinity proc/irq/5/ proc/irq/5/smp_affinity proc/irq/50/ proc/irq/50/smp_affinity proc/irq/51/ proc/irq/51/smp_affinity proc/irq/6/ proc/irq/6/smp_affinity proc/irq/7/ proc/irq/7/smp_affinity proc/irq/71/ proc/irq/71/smp_affinity proc/irq/72/ proc/irq/72/smp_affinity proc/irq/73/ proc/irq/73/smp_affinity proc/irq/74/ proc/irq/74/smp_affinity proc/irq/75/ proc/irq/75/smp_affinity proc/irq/76/ proc/irq/76/smp_affinity proc/irq/77/ proc/irq/77/smp_affinity proc/irq/78/ proc/irq/78/smp_affinity proc/irq/79/ proc/irq/79/smp_affinity proc/irq/8/ proc/irq/8/smp_affinity proc/irq/9/ proc/irq/9/smp_affinity proc/irq/95/ proc/irq/95/smp_affinity proc/irq/prof_cpu_mask proc/kcore 153354240 16% 116.60MB/s 0:00:06 <halted here> and on the console I found the attached stack trace. Kernel is Linux version 2.4.21-20.ELsmp (bhcompile.redhat.com) (gcc version 3.2.3 20030502 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.3-42)) #1 SMP Wed Aug 18 20:46:40 EDT 2004 (Newest RHEL3 update 3 kernel). This is a dual Xeon 3GHz - four logical CPU's. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): kernel-2.4.21-20.EL (Linux version 2.4.21-20.ELsmp (bhcompile.redhat.com) (gcc version 3.2.3 20030502 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.3-42)) #1 SMP Wed Aug 18 20:46:40 EDT 2004) How reproducible: Didn't try Steps to Reproduce: 1. rsync -a --verbose / /mnt/sdc/ 2. 3. Actual Results: Kernel crash Expected Results: No kernel crash Additional info:
Created attachment 105437 [details] The kernel crash stack trace
Created attachment 105438 [details] Oops, sorry, should be image/png
Created attachment 105439 [details] Oops, sorry, should be image/png
Doesn't seem easily reproducible, but I did get some weird messages from kernel when trying to do so. The target fs happened to be ext2 when it crashed.
I have 3GB RAM so the kcore is fairly big.
It is probably necessary to rsync the whole fs so that it'll run out of memory while trying to copy kcore. I just tried to reproduce rsyncin mere /proc.
Dave, this crash was in kmem_cache_alloc_batch() on behalf of get_unused_buffer_head(), potentially due to slab corruption. Closing as dup of bug 134988. -ernie *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 134988 ***
A fix for this problem has just been committed to the RHEL3 U5 patch pool this evening (in kernel version 2.4.21-27.10.EL).
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information on the solution and/or where to find the updated files, please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report if the solution does not work for you. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2005-294.html