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Posted to users@spamassassin.apache.org by Justin Mason <jm...@jmason.org> on 2004/11/20 03:09:26 UTC

need testers for a new memory patch

So, I have a new patch that should greatly improve memory usage
if you have a low memory situation (where "low" == "< 100MB of
free RAM", typically ;)

It should apply cleanly to 3.0.0.   I'd be very interested in
feedback from people trying it... here it is:

  http://bugzilla.spamassassin.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3983

It adds a couple of spamd command-line switches, but should do sane things
if you use your existing switches as-is.

--j.

Re: need testers for a new memory patch

Posted by Andy Jezierski <aj...@stepan.com>.
Michael Barnes <mb...@compsci.wm.edu> wrote on 11/23/2004 10:07:45 AM:

> 
> On Tue, Nov 23, 2004 at 09:34:42AM -0600, Andy Jezierski wrote:
> > I'm running on a FreeBSD 5.2.1 system with 192MB of ram
> 
> 
[snip]
> 
> I'm not trying to be rude.  But if I were stuck with the same crappy
> server hardware.  I would spend my own money to upgrade the box so that
> it was usable, and start looking for a better job.
> 

No offense taken, I just haven't had the need to upgrade them, they sit in 
the corner rack and just work.  Don't even have monitors or keyboards 
attached to them.  I'll ssh in maybe once or twice a month to see how 
they're doing, more often after an upgrade.  The machines just scan and 
relay the mail to an internal Notes server.  You don't need a lot of power 
to run sendmail, true the server running SA could use a good boost.  But 
we need the rack space, so they'll be replaced with new 1U servers in the 
beginning of the year. 

Andy

Re: need testers for a new memory patch

Posted by Michael Barnes <mb...@compsci.wm.edu>.
On Tue, Nov 23, 2004 at 09:34:42AM -0600, Andy Jezierski wrote:
> I'm running on a FreeBSD 5.2.1 system with 192MB of ram


Please ignore this if this box is an old personal machine or a test box,
or this is some donated box for a charity organization or something
similar.


I've always considered myself to be pretty frugal as far as server
specs and specs for my personal machines as well, but I guess I'm more
extravagant than I thought.

I say this because I havn't used a sever with less than 256 Megs of RAM
in 6 or 7 years, and I havn't used a personal machine (mostly laptops)
with less than 256 Megs of RAM in 4 or 5 years.


My point being, is that if your employer can't afford $50 or $100 to
be within par of the current specs of computers within the past 4 to 7
years, how much longer can your company stay in business?

I'm not trying to be rude.  But if I were stuck with the same crappy
server hardware.  I would spend my own money to upgrade the box so that
it was usable, and start looking for a better job.

Mike

-- 
/-----------------------------------------\
| Michael Barnes <mb...@compsci.wm.edu> |
| UNIX Systems Administrator              |
| College of William and Mary             |
| Phone: (757) 879-3930                   |
\-----------------------------------------/

Re: need testers for a new memory patch

Posted by Andy Jezierski <aj...@stepan.com>.
jm@jmason.org wrote on 11/19/2004 08:09:26 PM:

> So, I have a new patch that should greatly improve memory usage
> if you have a low memory situation (where "low" == "< 100MB of
> free RAM", typically ;)
> 
> It should apply cleanly to 3.0.0.   I'd be very interested in
> feedback from people trying it... here it is:
> 
>   http://bugzilla.spamassassin.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3983
> 
> It adds a couple of spamd command-line switches, but should do sane 
things
> if you use your existing switches as-is.
> 
> --j.

The patch seems to be working pretty well on my system, don't notice any 
slowdowns and paging is definitely better. I'm running on a FreeBSD 5.2.1 
system with 192MB of ram, using the defaults for the new switches, so two 
spamd child processes start up and it seems my system runs with just those 
two active most of the time.  I've seen it running with 5 processes a few 
times, which is what I have my limit set to, but most of the time it's 
using 2 or 3.  Here's a couple of top displays, the first is before the 
patch, the second is after.

last pid: 64134;  load averages:  1.02,  1.38,  1.30   up 45+20:26:52 
09:34:27
28 processes:  1 running, 27 sleeping
CPU states: 74.3% user,  0.0% nice, 13.2% system,  0.4% interrupt, 12.1% 
idle
Mem: 116M Active, 9728K Inact, 47M Wired, 6664K Cache, 28M Buf, 572K Free
Swap: 512M Total, 48M Used, 464M Free, 9% Inuse, 316K In, 416K Out

  PID USERNAME   PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE    TIME   WCPU    CPU 
COMMAND
64073 spamd      113    0 53552K 38820K select   0:21 13.64% 12.40% perl
64011 spamd        4    0 56244K 37632K accept   0:51 15.61% 11.57% perl
63916 spamd      107    0 59760K 36248K select   1:28 15.15% 11.23% perl
63995 spamd        4    0 57212K 39360K accept   0:58 10.62%  9.91% perl
63996 spamd        4    0 56248K 37392K accept   0:46  4.13%  3.76% perl
  389 root        96    0  1608K   268K select   4:58  0.00%  0.00% ntpd
  260 root        96    0  1312K   248K select   3:47  0.00%  0.00% 
syslogd
  414 root        96    0  3512K   476K select   3:25  0.00%  0.00% 
sendmail
28604 spamd       20    0 46188K     0K pause    1:11  0.00%  0.00% <perl>
  431 root         8    0  1336K   120K nanslp   0:40  0.00%  0.00% cron
  359 root        96    0  1236K    84K select   0:18  0.00%  0.00% usbd
  408 root        96    0  3488K     0K select   0:10  0.00%  0.00% <sshd>
  417 smmsp       20    0  3404K     0K pause    0:08  0.00%  0.00% 
<sendmail>
64116 root        96    0  2212K  1076K RUN      0:00  0.00%  0.00% top
64094 root         4    0  6240K     0K sbwait   0:00  0.00%  0.00% <sshd>
64112 root        20    0  2312K     0K pause    0:00  0.00%  0.00% <csh>
sidewinder#


last pid: 74409;  load averages:  1.25,  0.85,  0.70   up 46+20:09:26 
09:17:01
26 processes:  2 running, 24 sleeping
CPU states: 82.9% user,  0.0% nice, 14.8% system,  1.6% interrupt,  0.8% 
idle
Mem: 73M Active, 22M Inact, 47M Wired, 11M Cache, 28M Buf, 27M Free
Swap: 512M Total, 13M Used, 499M Free, 2% Inuse

  PID USERNAME   PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE    TIME   WCPU    CPU 
COMMAND
74322 spamd      127    0 56592K 46180K select   1:02 39.79% 39.79% perl
74370 spamd       -8    0 55752K 45212K piperd   0:38 35.92% 35.64% perl
  389 root        96    0  1608K   396K select   5:04  0.00%  0.00% ntpd
  260 root        96    0  1312K   280K select   3:52  0.00%  0.00% 
syslogd
  414 root        96    0  3512K   868K select   3:29  0.00%  0.00% 
sendmail
  431 root         8    0  1336K   192K nanslp   0:40  0.00%  0.00% cron
66431 spamd       96    0 46432K 28368K select   0:28  0.00%  0.00% perl
  359 root        96    0  1236K    84K select   0:18  0.00%  0.00% usbd
  408 root        97    0  3488K   488K select   0:10  0.00%  0.00% sshd
  417 smmsp       20    0  3404K   424K pause    0:09  0.00%  0.00% 
sendmail
66044 ajezierski  96    0  6240K  1052K select   0:01  0.00%  0.00% sshd
66047 root        20    0  2316K  1088K pause    0:00  0.00%  0.00% csh
66042 root         4    0  6240K   924K sbwait   0:00  0.00%  0.00% sshd
sidewinder# 

Great Job!

Thanks
Andy