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Bug 4085

Summary:	Netscape memory leak can take down a system.
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	markster
Component:	netscape	Assignee:	David Lawrence <dkl>
Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	6.0
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	i386
OS:	Linux
URL:	http://www.linux-support.net/
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	1999-08-18 21:42:05 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description markster 1999-07-17 14:08:05 UTC

Netscape contains very serious memory leaks.  If left
unattended on a page with autorefresh (like our incoming
queue page at Linux-Support.net), it will consume memory and
swap until nothing is left.  On my system, leaving netscape
open for four hours on a page that refreshes every 60
seconds, fills out the remainder of my 128MB of RAM and
128MB of swap, causing a panic (although nothing is logged,
and being in X-windows, I'm unable to see anything).
Userspace simply dies, while ping's and other kernel-only
functions remain intact.

I have a test technician account that I can make available
for anyone who wishes to duplicate the bug.

One potential work around I am currently testing is to add
"ulimit -d 32000" to /usr/bin/netscape to keep its
consumption under control.

Comment 1 Jay Turner 1999-07-19 14:21:59 UTC

What version of Netscape are you using.  I have seen a considerable
improvement in the leakage problem with release 4.61-1.

Comment 2 markster 1999-07-19 15:06:59 UTC

netscape-communicator-4.6-1

As provided in the updates to RedHat 6.0...

Comment 3 Bill Nottingham 1999-07-29 16:57:59 UTC

you might also try upgrading glibc to the latest version in Raw Hide;
there were memory leaks in some of the host resolution code; a
process that auto-refreshed would certainly run into this.