We have experienced this problem since we migrated to debian6 squeeze and from squid2 to squid3 in all squid installs (under high load). We have reverted to squid2 due to this issue. FOUR different installations in x86 and x64 hardware experience this problem.
ii squid-cgi 3.1.6-1.2 A full featured Web Proxy cache (HTTP proxy) - control CGI ii squid-langpack 20100628-1 Localized error pages for Squid ii squid3 3.1.6-1.2 A full featured Web Proxy cache (HTTP proxy) ii squid3-common 3.1.6-1.2 A full featured Web Proxy cache (HTTP proxy) - common files ii squidclient 3.1.6-1.2 A full featured Web Proxy cache (HTTP proxy) - control utilit [80480.883952] squid3 invoked oom-killer: gfp_mask=0x201da, order=0, oom_adj=0 [80480.883971] squid3 cpuset=/ mems_allowed=0 [80480.883973] Pid: 5177, comm: squid3 Not tainted 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 [80480.883975] Call Trace: [80480.883988] [<ffffffff810b60e8>] ? oom_kill_process+0x7f/0x23f [80480.883991] [<ffffffff810b660c>] ? __out_of_memory+0x12a/0x141 [80480.883993] [<ffffffff810b6763>] ? out_of_memory+0x140/0x172 [80480.883996] [<ffffffff810ba4c1>] ? __alloc_pages_nodemask +0x4e5/0x5f4 [80480.884000] [<ffffffff8101657d>] ? read_tsc+0xa/0x20 [80480.884004] [<ffffffff812faf3a>] ? io_schedule+0x93/0xb7 [80480.884006] [<ffffffff810bba25>] ? __do_page_cache_readahead +0x9b/0x1b4 [80480.884009] [<ffffffff81064ec4>] ? wake_bit_function+0x0/0x23 [80480.884011] [<ffffffff810bbb5a>] ? ra_submit+0x1c/0x20 [80480.884014] [<ffffffff810b4836>] ? filemap_fault+0x17d/0x2f6 [80480.884018] [<ffffffff810ca796>] ? __do_fault+0x54/0x3c3 [80480.884020] [<ffffffff812fb361>] ? __wait_on_bit_lock+0x76/0x84 [80480.884022] [<ffffffff810ccabf>] ? handle_mm_fault+0x3b8/0x80f [80480.884025] [<ffffffff810114ce>] ? common_interrupt+0xe/0x13 [80480.884028] [<ffffffff812fe6b6>] ? do_page_fault+0x2e0/0x2fc [80480.884030] [<ffffffff812fc555>] ? page_fault+0x25/0x30 [80480.884032] Mem-Info: [80480.884033] Node 0 DMA per-cpu: [80480.884035] CPU 0: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 [80480.884036] Node 0 DMA32 per-cpu: [80480.884037] CPU 0: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 60 [80480.884041] active_anon:267353 inactive_anon:89924 isolated_anon:37 [80480.884041] active_file:19 inactive_file:142 isolated_file:0 [80480.884042] unevictable:0 dirty:0 writeback:108 unstable:0 [80480.884043] free:2673 slab_reclaimable:1509 slab_unreclaimable:8597 [80480.884043] mapped:24 shmem:9 pagetables:1783 bounce:0 [80480.884045] Node 0 DMA free:5892kB min:48kB low:60kB high:72kB active_anon:4776kB inactive_anon:4852kB active_file:12kB inactive_file:0kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:15308kB mlocked:0kB dirty:0kB writeback:48kB mapped:20kB shmem:0kB slab_reclaimable:120kB slab_unreclaimable:136kB kernel_stack:0kB pagetables:20kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no [80480.884052] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 1463 1463 1463 [80480.884054] Node 0 DMA32 free:4800kB min:4868kB low:6084kB high:7300kB active_anon:1064636kB inactive_anon:354844kB active_file:64kB inactive_file:568kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):148kB isolated(file):0kB present:1498776kB mlocked:0kB dirty:0kB writeback:384kB mapped:76kB shmem:36kB slab_reclaimable:5916kB slab_unreclaimable:34252kB kernel_stack:1000kB pagetables:7112kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:496 all_unreclaimable? yes [80480.884061] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 0 [80480.884063] Node 0 DMA: 1*4kB 16*8kB 10*16kB 5*32kB 7*64kB 5*128kB 5*256kB 2*512kB 0*1024kB 1*2048kB 0*4096kB = 5892kB [80480.884068] Node 0 DMA32: 1134*4kB 1*8kB 2*16kB 1*32kB 1*64kB 1*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 4800kB [80480.884073] 40083 total pagecache pages [80480.884074] 39911 pages in swap cache [80480.884075] Swap cache stats: add 2924819, delete 2884908, find 466027/626781 [80480.884076] Free swap = 0kB [80480.884077] Total swap = 976888kB [80480.887909] 383984 pages RAM [80480.887911] 7437 pages reserved [80480.887912] 127 pages shared [80480.887912] 373479 pages non-shared [80480.887915] Out of memory: kill process 5177 (squid3) score 98346 or a child [80480.888043] Killed process 5180 (unlinkd)