witr@spooky.UUCP (Robert Withrow) (12/14/87)
I have what appears to be a bug new to news 2.11 patch level 14 that is causing havoc on my (SysV 2.2 -286 Microport) system. This isnt happening on each news batch, but is has happened with several... The scenario is this: 1) uucico starts uuxqt to ``rnews'' a batch of arriving compressed news. 2) rnews starts ``compress -d'' to uncompress the news. 3) rnews starts another ``rnews'' for some reason, probably to read the uncompressed news input. 4) the new rnews reads through the batch and works fine until (I presume) it gets to the end of the batch, and then it decides that the `inbound news is garbled' and dies. 5) the newest rnews process stays in <defunct> state. Nothing else happens. 6) These process chains stack up over time, a new chain being created each time uucico runs, eventually crasing the system due to insufficient swap space. I havnt had this problem before patch level 14. What gives??????????? +++ Appended are extracts from the ps listing and the log file.... UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME COMMAND root 0 0 53 20:43:40 ? 18:48 swapper root 1 0 0 20:43:40 ? 0:03 [ init ] root 0 0 3 20:43:40 ? 0:07 swapper uucp 230 137 0 21:17:23 cons1 0:00 sh -c PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/lbin uucp 137 1 0 21:10:58 cons1 0:01 UUXQT uucp 231 230 0 21:17:23 cons1 0:01 rnews uucp 232 231 0 21:17:24 cons1 0:08 compress -d uucp 235 231 0 0:00 <defunct> +++ Note, process 235 was `rnews' (The log --- Lots of stuf..... Then:) Dec 13 21:17 uunet Duplicate article <1329@murdu.OZ> rejected. Path: uunet!munnari!murdu!u3369429 Dec 13 21:17 uunet Duplicate article <8712040527.AA06002@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> rejected. Path: uunet!husc6!hao!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!FALCON.BERKELEY.EDU!NIELAND Dec 13 21:17 uunet Duplicate article <ID2960.D871203.T145858.CAIRNS@UPEI> rejected. Path: uunet!husc6!rutgers!labrea!jade!ucbvax!UPEI.BITNET!CAIRNS Dec 13 21:17 uunet Duplicate article <4800007@uiucdcsm> rejected. Path: uunet!husc6!uwvax!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uiucdcsm!grunwald Dec 13 21:17 local : Inbound news is garbled -- Robert Withrow, R.W. Withrow Assoc., 27 Greenwood Ter., Swampscott, MA 01907 witr@spooky.UUCP (uunet!spooky!witr), (Work) +1 617 593 8452.