Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 08:01:42 -0500 (CDT) From: Conrad Sabatier <conrads@neosoft.com> To: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Stupidity subjects box to *severe* stress test -- FreeBSD passes with flying colors Message-ID: <XFMail.990510080142.conrads@neosoft.com>
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[ The following was mailed to a friend of mine whose -STABLE box I've been maintaining. Even under the conditions described below, I was still able to rlogin and bring the machine back to a useable state, a real credit to FreeBSD's performance and reliablity. ] -----FW: <groan> Stupid, stupid, stupid! <sigh>----- Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 07:03:04 -0500 (CDT) From: Conrad Sabatier <conrads@neosoft.com> To: "Wayne F. Cox" <waynefc@neosoft.com> Subject: <groan> Stupid, stupid, stupid! <sigh> Got your mail this morning (it's a miracle you were able to send it; must have been a real exercise in frustration, I'm sure). I'm terribly, terribly sorry. It was such a stupid, idiotic mistake. In your root crontab, I had scheduled a job to update your ports collection at 3:00 am (I thought) [ Note: this included a "make -k readmes index" after the actual update ]. What I actually had done, though, was schedule the job to run *every* *friggin'* *minute* starting at 3:00 am. So you had literally *hundreds* of these things going. The scheduling info should have read: 0 3 * * * Whereas, instead, it actually read: * 3 * * * You can see, I'm sure, that the first asterisk was the culprit. It's a real credit to the stability and solidity of FreeBSD that all these processes running simultaneously [in only 64 MB/128 MB swap!] didn't just crash the system altogether. A lesser operating system surely would have choked to death in no time. Talk about a stress test! :-) I've gone in and fixed my error, and killed all the errant processes. Tonight at 3:00 am you should notice a marked difference, I guarantee. Again, I am truly sorry. But even the best of us UNIX Guru types are entitled to an occasional stupid fuck-up. :-) Take care, Conrad -- Conrad Sabatier <conrads@neosoft.com> Acid absorbs 47 times it's weight in excess Reality. --------------End of forwarded message------------------------- -- Conrad Sabatier <conrads@neosoft.com> "I'd love to go out with you, but I've been scheduled for a karma transplant." To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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