Re: [DNG] exim paniclog
> On 1 Jun 2021, at 05:26, Marc Shapiro via Dng wrote: > > I received this e-mail yesterday, and again today: > > - > exim paniclog /var/log/exim4/paniclog on quixote.home has non-zero size, mail > system might be broken. The last 10 lines are quoted below. > > 2021-05-29 19:35:47 daemon: fork of queue-runner process failed: Cannot > allocate memory > - > > I use Thunderbird for all non-local mail. > I am only using exim for local mail. > The only mail that I receive locally is a weekly e-mail from a cron job that > I have set up to do backups, and I did receive that e-mail yesterday, along > with the above e-mail. > > I'm not familiar with the workings of exim, or any MTA, so I don't really > know what the error message means, other than that there was some memory > issue. The one clue that I have is that something (I am fairly sure that it > was a Firefox tab) completely locked my system on Saturday night. Everything > started slowing down. Mousing became erratic. Then everything completely > stopped. I couldn't even switch to a terminal where I could kill Firefox. I > finally had to simply power down the system. (How I hate doing that!) Then > I rebooted, did a controlled shutdown and rebooted, again. After that, > everything seems to be running just fine. > > Is that likely the cause of the above message? If so, is deleting the > paniclog the proper way to stop receiving these e-mails? > > Marc > Next time, before just powering down the system, you should try the Magic SysRq keyboard shortcuts to see if the kernel is still responding. https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/sysrq.html I like to follow the example used on the Wikipedia page which lists the Alt+SysRq+REISUB keys for doing a safer reboot than simply just hitting the physical power button. I try to leave a few of seconds at least in between key presses, to give time for each command to process completely. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key -- Tom___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
Re: [DNG] exim paniclog
On 5/31/21 1:10 PM, g4sra via Dng wrote: No, don't delete it, empty it, this should be the standard practice when manually manipulating daemon log files. I have emptied the paniclog, per you prior directions. Thanks. ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
Re: [DNG] exim paniclog
On 5/31/21 12:36 PM, Antony Stone wrote: On Monday 31 May 2021 at 21:25:18, Marc Shapiro via Dng wrote: I couldn't even switch to a terminal where I could kill Firefox. I finally had to simply power down the system. (How I hate doing that!) Hint for the future - if you have sshd running on this machine, you may well find you can log in to it from elsewhere and tell it to "reboot". That will at least shut processes down cleanly (migth take a while) and unmount your file systems cleanly. Thanks for the tip. I have used sftp from my Android phone for transferring files to and from the phone, but had not tried ssh directly. I have installed an ssh app and it seems to work nicely. I hope I will not actually need to use it. Marc ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
Re: [DNG] exim paniclog
‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐ On Monday, May 31, 2021 8:43 PM, Antony Stone wrote: > On Monday 31 May 2021 at 21:37:30, g4sra via Dng wrote: > > > > Is deleting the paniclog the proper way to stop receiving these e-mails? > > > > No, don't delete it, empty it, this should be the standard practice when > > manually manipulating daemon log files. > > Hm, why do you say that? Because I was taught to do it this way and the reasoning fits. > > Surely you want exim to open a new log file when it has something new to > report. To do that you would also need to to shut down and restart exim. > If you do not delete the log file but simply write "nothing" to it in order to > empty it, won't the daemon keep the current write position and then get > confused when the file is smaller? No. It actually appends the next write the the 'nothing' already in the file (the filepointer is moved by writing nothing, remember the OS filesystem holds the filepointer, exim holds a file descriptor). Historically, not all daemons will create their log files, they will silently omit logging if they do not pre-exist. Some daemons will not write to existing log files unless they have correct ownership and permissions (for security, plain text passwords in log files, or daemons that drop privileges). Deleting a file does not delete any file descriptors held by other processes those processes will continue to write to the original file (it is possible to recover an unintentionally deleted file providing a process is holding a file descriptor as until it does, the file space is not unallocated for reuse). Alternatively to my suggestion you could... stop exim delete /var/log/exim4/paniclog recreate /var/log/exim4/paniclog with the correct user/mode permissions start exim I am both 'Old School' and lazy. publickey - g4sra@protonmail.com - 0x42E94623.asc Description: application/pgp-keys signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
Re: [DNG] exim paniclog
On Mon, 31 May 2021 21:43:54 +0200 Antony Stone wrote: > On Monday 31 May 2021 at 21:37:30, g4sra via Dng wrote: > > > > Is deleting the paniclog the proper way to stop receiving these > > > e-mails? > > > > No, don't delete it, empty it, this should be the standard practice > > when manually manipulating daemon log files. > > Hm, why do you say that? > > Surely you want exim to open a new log file when it has something new > to report. > > If you do not delete the log file but simply write "nothing" to it in > order to empty it, won't the daemon keep the current write position > and then get confused when the file is smaller? > > > Antony. > Hi, wouldn't the daemon simply append to the end of the log file? Ciao, Tito ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
Re: [DNG] exim paniclog
On Monday 31 May 2021 at 21:37:30, g4sra via Dng wrote: > > Is deleting the paniclog the proper way to stop receiving these e-mails? > > No, don't delete it, empty it, this should be the standard practice when > manually manipulating daemon log files. Hm, why do you say that? Surely you want exim to open a new log file when it has something new to report. If you do not delete the log file but simply write "nothing" to it in order to empty it, won't the daemon keep the current write position and then get confused when the file is smaller? Antony. -- Software development can be quick, high quality, or low cost. The customer gets to pick any two out of three. Please reply to the list; please *don't* CC me. ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
Re: [DNG] exim paniclog
‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐ On Monday, May 31, 2021 8:25 PM, Marc Shapiro via Dng wrote: > I received this e-mail yesterday, and again today: > > --- > > exim paniclog /var/log/exim4/paniclog on quixote.home has non-zero size, mail > system might be broken. The last 10 lines are quoted below. > > 2021-05-29 19:35:47 daemon: fork of queue-runner process failed: Cannot > allocate memory > > --- > > I use Thunderbird for all non-local mail. > I am only using exim for local mail. > The only mail that I receive locally is a weekly e-mail from a cron job that > I have set up to do backups, and I did receive that e-mail yesterday, along > with the above e-mail. > > I'm not familiar with the workings of exim, or any MTA, so I don't really > know what the error message means, other than that there was some memory > issue. The one clue that I have is that something (I am fairly sure that it > was a Firefox tab) completely locked my system on Saturday night. Everything > started slowing down. Mousing became erratic. Then everything completely > stopped. I couldn't even switch to a terminal where I could kill Firefox. I > finally had to simply power down the system. (How I hate doing that!) Then I > rebooted, did a controlled shutdown and rebooted, again. After that, > everything seems to be running just fine. > > Is that likely the cause of the above message? Yes > If so, is deleting the paniclog the proper way to stop receiving these > e-mails? No, don't delete it, empty it, this should be the standard practice when manually manipulating daemon log files. The easiest way, with root permissions to literally redirect nothing to the log file (omit the double-quotes). ">/var/log/exim4/paniclog" > > Marc > > Dng mailing list > Dng@lists.dyne.org > https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng publickey - g4sra@protonmail.com - 0x42E94623.asc Description: application/pgp-keys signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
Re: [DNG] exim paniclog
On Monday 31 May 2021 at 21:25:18, Marc Shapiro via Dng wrote: > I received this e-mail yesterday, and again today: > > - > exim paniclog /var/log/exim4/paniclog on quixote.home has non-zero size, > mail system might be broken. The last 10 lines are quoted below. > > 2021-05-29 19:35:47 daemon: fork of queue-runner process failed: Cannot > allocate memory > - > The one clue that I have is that something (I am fairly sure that it was a > Firefox tab) completely locked my system on Saturday night. Everything > started slowing down. Mousing became erratic. Then everything completely > stopped. That certainly sounds like Firefox eating all memory (and probably going through the swap space too). > I couldn't even switch to a terminal where I could kill Firefox. I finally > had to simply power down the system. (How I hate doing that!) Hint for the future - if you have sshd running on this machine, you may well find you can log in to it from elsewhere and tell it to "reboot". That will at least shut processes down cleanly (migth take a while) and unmount your file systems cleanly. > Is that likely the cause of the above message? If so, is deleting the > paniclog the proper way to stop receiving these e-mails? I would say yes to both. Aside from anything else, unless you get further problems, you don't want to be continually reminded about something that happened on the 29th May. Antony. -- Salad is what food eats. Please reply to the list; please *don't* CC me. ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
[DNG] exim paniclog
I received this e-mail yesterday, and again today: - exim paniclog /var/log/exim4/paniclog on quixote.home has non-zero size, mail system might be broken. The last 10 lines are quoted below. 2021-05-29 19:35:47 daemon: fork of queue-runner process failed: Cannot allocate memory - I use Thunderbird for all non-local mail. I am only using exim for local mail. The only mail that I receive locally is a weekly e-mail from a cron job that I have set up to do backups, and I did receive that e-mail yesterday, along with the above e-mail. I'm not familiar with the workings of exim, or any MTA, so I don't really know what the error message means, other than that there was some memory issue. The one clue that I have is that something (I am fairly sure that it was a Firefox tab) completely locked my system on Saturday night. Everything started slowing down. Mousing became erratic. Then everything completely stopped. I couldn't even switch to a terminal where I could kill Firefox. I finally had to simply power down the system. (How I hate doing that!) Then I rebooted, did a controlled shutdown and rebooted, again. After that, everything seems to be running just fine. Is that likely the cause of the above message? If so, is deleting the paniclog the proper way to stop receiving these e-mails? Marc ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
