291553 - Atrocious memory leak when active channel left open

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Other Applications :: ChatZilla, defect)

Description

[John Zapisek]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.7) Gecko/20050414
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.7) Gecko/20050414, ChatZilla/0.9.61


This bug might be similar to bug
<a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=224661">
224661</a>.  However, I could not figure out how to add a note
to that bug because it was specific to OS/2, and I am running
Linux.  My sincere apologies if I am being redundant.  But PLEASE
see the P.S. at the end of this note.

The ChatZilla memory leak is not confined to just OS/2.

I am running ChatZilla 0.9.61 as part of Mozilla suite 1.7.7
on a Dell Celeron box with 384 MB Ram and 2 GB swap space.
OS kernel is Linux 2.4.20-30.9 as part of the RedHat 9 distro.

Leaving chatzilla connected to an active channel for a few days
brings system performance to a crawl.  E.g., after 3 days on
dalnet's #pinoytrivia channel (a very active channel), "ps aux"
commands shows mozilla-bin taking 45% of available memory.

Odd clue:  Killing the mozilla process does help, but not as
much as I had expected.  Logging out and in again (restarting
the X server) fully restored normal performance.  I'm wondering
if chatzilla is leaving  behind a few **** for the X-window
system to wade through.  (I am NOT an X-windows expert, so
please forgive any perceived absurdity as mere speculation.)

Thank you.  --jzap

P.S.  This might also be related to bug
<a herf="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=291210>
291210</a>.  If that bug relates to TOO_MUCH_GC, and if GC
means Garbage Collection, then problems in that area are
prime suspects for memory-leak errors.



Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open Mozilla.  I browse to my Gmail page which refreshes every 2 minutes.
2. Open the e-mail client.  My client periodically checks several other acounts.
3. Open ChatZilla.  Connect to dalnet.  Join #pinoytrivia channel.
4. Wait three days.
5. Note that issuing the "/clear" command seems to have no effect.


Actual Results:  
System grinds to a crawl.  Cursor tracking of mouse position is
horribly delayed.  Same for response of X-window system.

Expected Results:  
Performed garbage collection correctly.

about:buildconfig

Build platform
target
i686-pc-linux-gnu

Build tools
Compiler 	Version 	Compiler flags
gcc 	gcc version 3.2.3 	-Wall -W -Wno-unused -Wpointer-arith -Wcast-align
-Wno-long-long -pedantic -pthread -pipe
c++ 	gcc version 3.2.3 	-fno-rtti -fno-exceptions -Wall -Wconversion
-Wpointer-arith -Wcast-align -Woverloaded-virtual -Wsynth -Wno-ctor-dtor-privacy
-Wno-non-virtual-dtor -Wno-long-long -pedantic -fshort-wchar -pthread -pipe
-I/usr/X11R6/include

Configure arguments
--enable-application=suite --enable-extensions=default,irc,tasks,negotiateauth
--disable-tests --disable-debug '--enable-optimize=-O2 -gstabs+'
--without-system-nspr --without-system-zlib --without-system-jpeg
--without-system-png --without-system-mng --without-system-mng --enable-crypto

Comment 1

[James Ross]

Bug 291210 is not really related at all - as far as I can tell it is nothing to
do with ChatZilla.

Also, please please please don't report bugs for an old ChatZilla version. Get
0.9.68a from http://www.hacksrus.com/~ginda/chatzilla/ and see if the problem
persists.

Plus, did you change any of ChatZilla's preferences?

And, as a final note, any stupid X server stuff is nothing to do with us - file
bugs on Mozilla or GTK.

Oh, and one more thing: the GMail page is known to cause leaks, and nasty ones
at that, at least in some versions (I forget which, but 1.7.7 probably isn't a
fixed build).

Comment 2

[Robert Ginda]

It'd also be interesting to know which motif you're using.  Motifs that make use
of the -moz-opacity css attribute are known to leak X resources, and probably
mozilla-owned memory as well.

Comment 3

[James Ross]

Reporter, two things:

a. Could you please get the latest version of ChatZilla from:
     https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=16
b. Could you enter the "/motif" command and tell us what the output is.

Thanks.

Comment 4

[Samuel Sieb]

closing due to lack of response.  please reopen if you still see this with a recent version of chatzilla