Re: BUG #1397: busy-loop hang on web server

On Thu, 2005-01-13 at 23:57 +0000, Chris Jones wrote:
> The following bug has been logged online:
>
> Bug reference: 1397
> Logged by: Chris Jones
> Email address: chris(at)cjones(dot)org
> PostgreSQL version: 7.4.6
> Operating system: NetBSD 2.0 i386
> Description: busy-loop hang on web server
> Details:
>
> I recently upgraded my OS from a previous version. In the process, I
> recompiled PostgreSQL 7.3 (using pkgsrc). I began seeing a hang, so I
> upgraded to PostgreSQL 7.4.6 (again using pkgsrc). Same problem still
> exists:
>
> Every day or two, PostgreSQL will hang. It maxes out the CPU when it does,
> with one process seeming to be in a busy loop. There are the normal
> auxiliary processes, as well as a zombie which I assume was servicing a
> client.
>
> The busy process doesn't respond to kill, only to "kill -KILL". After it
> dies off due to this, the others eventually (a minute or so) go away, too.
>
> Nothing appears in errlog around the time of the hang; the only messages
> there are associated with various startup operations. The errlog does,
> however, indicate the time when the server was interrupted. That time
> coincides with when a backup (using dump) was happening last night.
>
> Please let me know what other information would be useful in debugging this.

Chris,

Are you running any plug-ins or have you altered the server code in any
way? This might be additional Languages added, Functions written in
those languages or SPI code. Those must draw the most suspicion for an
error of this type.

Do you have deadlock detection enabled; set to what?

You need to provide considerably more information to allow anyone to
help you on this.

Your best solution might be to move to 8.0, since you are compiling from
source, and hope that the problem has been resolved at that release. You
will certainly get many other benefits.

--
Best Regards, Simon Riggs