Hey all,

Anyone else have issues on Linux where MIS POLL gets stuck and you have to manually kill the process for polling to continue?

Seems to happen about once a week, and I only poll Paul's system (21:1/100) with Mystic. Seems 21:1/100 is using binkd-111, but I can't find anything in my logs as to why the process sticks. Logs say the poll ended, yet the process is there, until I manually kill it. During the time the process is locked, no more polls occur, and as soon as I kill it polls continue normally.

I finally notice it when I login to newscan and there's no new messages.

Regards,
Nick

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/04/08 (Linux/64)
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (21:1/200)

On 13 Apr 2021 at 05:53p, Accession pondered and said...

Seems to happen about once a week, and I only poll Paul's system (21:1/100) with Mystic. Seems 21:1/100 is using binkd-111, but I can't find anything in my logs as to why the process sticks. Logs say the poll ended, yet the process is there, until I manually kill it. During the
time the process is locked, no more polls occur, and as soon as I kill
it polls continue normally.

That is strange Nick. Would it help if I post a copy of the BinkD logs here?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

Re: Polling
By: Accession to All on Tue Apr 13 2021 05:53 pm

Anyone else have issues on Linux where MIS POLL gets stuck and you have to manually kill the process for polling to continue?

I haven't had issues. My setup is different though, my mystic is a point off my own node and they crash stuff to each other. I'm running binkd on my node and it seems to just work.

Ttyl :-),
Al

... First secure an independent income, then practice virtue.
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106.1)

Hello Accession!

On 13 Apr 2021, Accession said the following...

Anyone else have issues on Linux where MIS POLL gets stuck and you have
to manually kill the process for polling to continue?

I used to have those problems, mis eating all CPU and had to kill it. Usually once a week or so. I switched to running mis through:

timeout -k 600 --preserve-status -v 600 ./mis poll forced

That way, if mis runs for more than 10 minutes, timeout will send a kill signal to it to allow it to exit cleanly (can't remember if it does), then after 10 more minutes (maximum) it will force-kill it. Not sure what the status of busy files will be then, though...

But, I recently switched to polling through binkd so I'm immune now. :)
But it worked fine for at least a year or so.

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/04/08 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)

On 14 Apr 2021, Avon said the following...

That is strange Nick. Would it help if I post a copy of the BinkD logs here?

Only if you can produce the exact log snippet from where the process locked.

Maybe I'll be able to get a timeframe when it happens next time. So at least you have a starting point as to where to look.

Regards,
Nick

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/04/08 (Linux/64)
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (21:1/200)

On 14 Apr 2021, Zip said the following...

I used to have those problems, mis eating all CPU and had to kill it. Usually once a week or so. I switched to running mis through:

timeout -k 600 --preserve-status -v 600 ./mis poll forced

I may have to give that a shot, although I would like to fix the underlying issue. Especially if it's something Mystic is doing, as none of my other systems are experiencing this.

But, I recently switched to polling through binkd so I'm immune now. :) But it worked fine for at least a year or so.

Well, that doesn't fix anything except the fact you don't have to deal with it any more. ;)

Regards,
Nick

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/04/08 (Linux/64)
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (21:1/200)

Re: Polling
By: Accession to Zip on Thu Apr 15 2021 05:20 pm

Well, that doesn't fix anything except the fact you don't have to deal with it any more. ;)

Yes, it would be much better for everyone if we can get the issues ironed out. Then g00r00 can get a release put together that works for everyone.

Ttyl :-),
Al

... Our program, who art in memory. EXE be thy name.
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106.1)

On 15 Apr 2021 at 05:15p, Accession pondered and said...

Only if you can produce the exact log snippet from where the process locked.

Maybe I'll be able to get a timeframe when it happens next time. So at least you have a starting point as to where to look.

OK let me know if you need anything, happy to help.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

Hello Accession!

On 15 Apr 2021, Accession said the following...

timeout -k 600 --preserve-status -v 600 ./mis poll forced

I may have to give that a shot, although I would like to fix the underlying issue. Especially if it's something Mystic is doing, as none
of my other systems are experiencing this.

I'm wondering if it could have something to do with time adjustment (clock going backwards? or does it just slow down to adjust backwards?), as I believe strace output suggested that it was calling gettimeofday() repeatedly and waiting for some kind of timer...

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/04/08 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)

On 16 Apr 2021, Zip said the following...

I'm wondering if it could have something to do with time adjustment
(clock going backwards? or does it just slow down to adjust backwards?), as I believe strace output suggested that it was calling gettimeofday() repeatedly and waiting for some kind of timer...

I guess anything is possible. However, I can't really think of any reason as to why a direct MIS POLL 21:1/100 process would lock up, unless the connection went bad and hung, or the connection's handshakes didn't finish properly.

Regards,
Nick

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/04/08 (Linux/64)
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (21:1/200)

On 17 Apr 2021 at 08:15a, Accession pondered and said...

I guess anything is possible. However, I can't really think of any
reason as to why a direct MIS POLL 21:1/100 process would lock up,
unless the connection went bad and hung, or the connection's handshakes didn't finish properly.

Here's a recent poll I can see. As far as I can tell there is no issue.

- 18 Apr 19:42:03 [1480] incoming from 24.209.142.55 (47952)
+ 18 Apr 19:42:03 [1549] incoming session with
cpe-24-209-142-55.wi.res.rr.com [24.209.142.55]
- 18 Apr 19:42:03 [1549] SYS The Pharcyde
- 18 Apr 19:42:04 [1549] ZYZ Accession
- 18 Apr 19:42:04 [1549] TIME Sun, 18 Apr 2021 02:42:03 -0500
- 18 Apr 19:42:04 [1549] VER Mystic/1.12A47 binkp/1.0
- 18 Apr 19:42:04 [1549] BUILD 2021/04/08 18:51:23 Linux/64
+ 18 Apr 19:42:04 [1549] addr: 21:1/200@fsxnet
+ 18 Apr 19:42:04 [1549] pwd protected session (MD5)
+ 18 Apr 19:42:04 [1549] sending /hub/echomail/out.015/7bd85c0f.su0 as 7bd85c0f.su0 (9487)
- 18 Apr 19:42:04 [1549] QSIZE 0 files 0 bytes
+ 18 Apr 19:42:04 [1549] sent: /hub/echomail/out.015/7bd85c0f.su0 (9487, 9487.00 CPS, 21:1/200@fsxnet)
+ 18 Apr 19:42:04 [1549] done (from 21:1/200@fsxnet, OK, S/R: 1/0 (9487/0 bytes))
18 Apr 19:42:04 [1549] session closed, quitting...
18 Apr 19:42:04 [1480] rc(1549)=0

I think this last code means success in BinkD speak? Unsure.

If you send me a date/time when your logs show a problem I'm happy to track it back and look at my logs if you like. :)

Best, Paul

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

On 18 Apr 2021, Avon said the following...

Here's a recent poll I can see. As far as I can tell there is no issue.

Correct. It hasn't happened since upgrading to the April release so far.

If you send me a date/time when your logs show a problem I'm happy to track it back and look at my logs if you like. :)

I wasn't able to find anything in the logs the last time it happened. The last log entry looked to be a successful poll, and yet the next logged poll didn't happen till the next day when I saw the issue with the stuck process and killed it.

This one is going to be hard to pinpoint, methinks.

Regards,
Nick

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/04/08 (Linux/64)
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (21:1/200)

On 18 Apr 2021 at 08:24a, Accession pondered and said...

Correct. It hasn't happened since upgrading to the April release so far.

well that's good news..

This one is going to be hard to pinpoint, methinks.

Yep. OK lemme know if/when you want further telemetry. :)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)