scilab allocates excessive memory

Bug #225070 reported by Mike
8
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Scilab
Fix Released
Low
scilab (Ubuntu)
Incomplete
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Using stacksize() function to increase virtual memory in Ubuntu 7.10's scilab 4.1.1 results in excessive memory allocation. In some cases memory is continually allocated until system slows to a crawl, swapping.

Ubuntu 7.10
Scilab package: 4.1.1-1

In comparison, scilab 4.1.2 downloaded as a binary from scilab.org works fine. A previously downloaded 4.1.1 version of Scilab from scilab.org also worked fine (used on an older version of Ubuntu, 6.10 LTS I believe) so it is not fundamentally a scilab problem.

Here are some allocation examples between the two (total virtual process size reported). Stacksize() function takes a numeric argument which is the number of 8-byte doubles to increase stack allocation by, so stacksize(40000000) should allocate 320 MB to the stack. In these examples, no code is being run or data loaded; just the command line shell is started and the stacksize() command is executed. 4.1.2 produces the expected virtual size; 4.1.1 is roughly double under no activity. With significant code running, my observation is that Ubuntu's 4.1.1 scilab continues to allocate memory well beyond the stacksize() numbers shown below, just doesn't seem to stop allocating (but that's a guess). As a result, Ubutnu's scilab 4.1.1 is unusable.

stacksize() 4.1.1 (Ubuntu pkg) 4.1.2 (scilab.org binary release)
=====================================================
10000000 180 MB 96.5 MB
20000000 337 MB 174 MB
40000000 649 MB 331 MB
100000000 1.43 GB 800 MB

Recommend: fix (presumed) configuration issue with Ubuntu's scilab 4.1.1 package.

Revision history for this message
In , Sylvestre-ledru-v (sylvestre-ledru-v) wrote :

-- Bug description --

Reported in the Ubuntu bug tracker:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/scilab/+bug/225070

--
Using stacksize() function to increase virtual memory in Ubuntu 7.10's scilab 4.1.1 results in excessive memory allocation. In some cases memory is continually allocated until system slows to a crawl, swapping.

Ubuntu 7.10
Scilab package: 4.1.1-1

In comparison, scilab 4.1.2 downloaded as a binary from scilab.org works fine. A previously downloaded 4.1.1 version of Scilab from scilab.org also worked fine (used on an older version of Ubuntu, 6.10 LTS I believe) so it is not fundamentally a scilab problem.

Here are some allocation examples between the two (total virtual process size reported). Stacksize() function takes a numeric argument which is the number of 8-byte doubles to increase stack allocation by, so stacksize(40000000) should allocate 320 MB to the stack. In these examples, no code is being run or data loaded; just the command line shell is started and the stacksize() command is executed. 4.1.2 produces the expected virtual size; 4.1.1 is roughly double under no activity. With significant code running, my observation is that Ubuntu's 4.1.1 scilab continues to allocate memory well beyond the stacksize() numbers shown below, just doesn't seem to stop allocating (but that's a guess). As a result, Ubutnu's scilab 4.1.1 is unusable.

stacksize() 4.1.1 (Ubuntu pkg) 4.1.2 (scilab.org binary release)
=====================================================
10000000 180 MB 96.5 MB
20000000 337 MB 174 MB
40000000 649 MB 331 MB
100000000 1.43 GB 800 MB

Recommend: fix (presumed) configuration issue with Ubuntu's scilab 4.1.1 package.
---

-- Scilab error message --

-- How to reproduce the bug --

Revision history for this message
Sylvestre Ledru (sylvestre) wrote :

Interesting bug ... forwarded upstream:
http://bugzilla.scilab.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3569

Revision history for this message
Mike (mike-kleinnet) wrote : Re: [Bug 225070] Re: scilab allocates excessive memory

Thanks -- you don't think it is an Ubuntu configuration problem? It occurs only
with the Ubuntu package version.

  -Mike

--On Monday, September 22, 2008 6:32 PM +0000 Sylvestre Ledru
<email address hidden> wrote:

> Interesting bug ... forwarded upstream:
> http://bugzilla.scilab.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3569

Revision history for this message
Sylvestre Ledru (sylvestre) wrote :

There is nothing special/weird with the creation of the Ubuntu packages.
btw, are you using 32 or 64 bits CPU ?

Revision history for this message
Mike (mike-kleinnet) wrote :

OK. I am using 64-bit CPU and 64-bit Ubuntu 7.10. Scilab is 32-bit only.

  -Mike

--On Monday, September 22, 2008 8:57 PM +0000 Sylvestre Ledru
<email address hidden> wrote:

> There is nothing special/weird with the creation of the Ubuntu packages.
> btw, are you using 32 or 64 bits CPU ?

Revision history for this message
Sylvestre Ledru (sylvestre) wrote :

This might explain the difference .... We will see with the version 5 when it comes up.

Revision history for this message
Mike (mike-kleinnet) wrote :

I suspect then that this won't get fixed. It seems to be an Ubuntu problem. The
scilab binary works fine, a RedHat version works fine on a similar Fedora release,
only Ubuntu doesn't work, all under the same conditions.

  -Mike

--On Monday, September 22, 2008 9:24 PM +0000 Sylvestre Ledru
<email address hidden> wrote:

> This might explain the difference .... We will see with the version 5
> when it comes up.

Changed in scilab:
status: Unknown → Confirmed
Changed in scilab:
importance: Unknown → Low
Revision history for this message
Thomas Hotz (thotz-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Version 5 is available now, so can someone test this please if the package works. Thank you very much!

Changed in scilab (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
In , Sgougeon (sgougeon) wrote :

stacksize() is removed in Scilab 6.

Changed in scilab:
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
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