emacs suspension

emacs suspension

[Michelle Roderick]

I am using emacs-21.2 in vip mode.  I have a large file that I am working
with (450Kbytes) and it occasionally suspends when I go into insert mode or
if I do a line copy/paste.  The suspension can last around 30 minutes.  I
changed my buffer size to:

(setq font-lock-maximum-size 524288)

and it still locks up.  Has anybody had this problem???

Regards,

Michelle

Re: emacs suspension

[gebser]

I've used emacs for files much larger than 450k-- files up to several 
megs-- and never had such a lock-up.  Perhaps I wasn't ever using 
font-lock with them, I'm not sure.  

If you're on a *nix box, do "top n 1" in a term when this happens and 
paste it back to us.

hth,
ken

At 10:17 (UTC-0700) on Mon, 8 Dec 2003 Michelle Roderick said:

= I am using emacs-21.2 in vip mode.  I have a large file that I am working
= with (450Kbytes) and it occasionally suspends when I go into insert mode or
= if I do a line copy/paste.  The suspension can last around 30 minutes.  I
= changed my buffer size to:
= 
= (setq font-lock-maximum-size 524288)
= 
= and it still locks up.  Has anybody had this problem???
= 
= Regards,
= 
= Michelle
= 
= 
= 
= _______________________________________________
= Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
= Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
= http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs
= 

Re: emacs suspension

[Michelle Roderick]

Is this what you wanted to see?

load averages:  0.88,  0.35,  0.23
01:00:02
161 processes: 158 sleeping, 1 running, 1 stopped, 1 on cpu
CPU states:  0.0% idle, 99.4% user,  0.6% kernel,  0.0% iowait,  0.0% swap
Memory: 1024M real, 473M free, 479M swap in use, 6422M swap free

<gebser@speakeasy.net> wrote in message
news:mailman.1364.1070916279.399.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org...
>
> I've used emacs for files much larger than 450k-- files up to several
> megs-- and never had such a lock-up.  Perhaps I wasn't ever using
> font-lock with them, I'm not sure.
>
> If you're on a *nix box, do "top n 1" in a term when this happens and
> paste it back to us.
>
> hth,
> ken
>
> At 10:17 (UTC-0700) on Mon, 8 Dec 2003 Michelle Roderick said:
>
> = I am using emacs-21.2 in vip mode.  I have a large file that I am
working
> = with (450Kbytes) and it occasionally suspends when I go into insert mode
or
> = if I do a line copy/paste.  The suspension can last around 30 minutes.
I
> = changed my buffer size to:
> =
> = (setq font-lock-maximum-size 524288)
> =
> = and it still locks up.  Has anybody had this problem???
> =
> = Regards,
> =
> = Michelle
> =
> =
> =
> = _______________________________________________
> = Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
> = Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> = http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs
> =
>
>
>

Re: emacs suspension

[gebser]

Yes, but I was hoping to see the whole page-- including the processes 
actually running and how much CPU, memory, etc. they were using.  Try it 
again in a full screen window and give us the entire page of output.

We do get _some_ information from what you provided: You have a lot of
processes running.  Do you really need them all?  The CPU is booked to
the max with user processes (user applications).  But you do have enough
swap.  Having more physical memory would help things run faster.  
Normally a gig should be enough, but maybe you're running some
memory-heavy stuff.

You could also make emacs run faster and smaller by byte-compiling 
relevant *.el files.


hth,
ken


At 17:08 (UTC-0700) on Tue, 9 Dec 2003 Michelle Roderick said:

= Is this what you wanted to see?
= 
= load averages:  0.88,  0.35,  0.23
= 01:00:02
= 161 processes: 158 sleeping, 1 running, 1 stopped, 1 on cpu
= CPU states:  0.0% idle, 99.4% user,  0.6% kernel,  0.0% iowait,  0.0% swap
= Memory: 1024M real, 473M free, 479M swap in use, 6422M swap free
= 
= <gebser@speakeasy.net> wrote in message
= news:mailman.1364.1070916279.399.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org...
= >
= > I've used emacs for files much larger than 450k-- files up to several
= > megs-- and never had such a lock-up.  Perhaps I wasn't ever using
= > font-lock with them, I'm not sure.
= >
= > If you're on a *nix box, do "top n 1" in a term when this happens and
= > paste it back to us.
= >
= > hth,
= > ken
= >
= > At 10:17 (UTC-0700) on Mon, 8 Dec 2003 Michelle Roderick said:
= >
= > = I am using emacs-21.2 in vip mode.  I have a large file that I am
= working
= > = with (450Kbytes) and it occasionally suspends when I go into insert mode
= or
= > = if I do a line copy/paste.  The suspension can last around 30 minutes.
= I
= > = changed my buffer size to:
= > =
= > = (setq font-lock-maximum-size 524288)
= > =
= > = and it still locks up.  Has anybody had this problem???
= > =
= > = Regards,
= > =
= > = Michelle
= > =
= > =
= > =
= > = _______________________________________________
= > = Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
= > = Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
= > = http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs
= > =
= >
= >
= >
= 
= 
= _______________________________________________
= Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
= Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
= http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs
= 

Re: emacs suspension

[Stefan Monnier]

> I am using emacs-21.2 in vip mode.  I have a large file that I am working
> with (450Kbytes) and it occasionally suspends when I go into insert mode or
> if I do a line copy/paste.  The suspension can last around 30 minutes.

Take a look at emacs/etc/DEBUG where you'll see how to run Emacs under
a debugger and interrupt it every once in a while to see what it's doing
doing this time.

> I changed my buffer size to:

> (setq font-lock-maximum-size 524288)

That does not change the buffer size.  What gave you the impression that
your problem is related to font-lock?  Does the problem disappear if
font-lock is turned off?

> and it still locks up.  Has anybody had this problem???

It could simply be hitting a bad regexp that has an exponential behavior.
Setting debug-on-quit to t and hitting C-g during the hang might help
figure out what's going on.


        Stefan

Re: emacs suspension

[Michelle Roderick]

"Stefan Monnier" <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote in message
news:jwv4qw9pdy5.fsf-monnier+gnu.emacs.help@vor.iro.umontreal.ca...
> > I changed my buffer size to:
>
> > (setq font-lock-maximum-size 524288)
>
> That does not change the buffer size.  What gave you the impression that
> your problem is related to font-lock?  Does the problem disappear if
> font-lock is turned off?
>

I didn't know why emacs was taking so long to load this file and also it was
suspending (the problem I'm currently inquiring about).  So I did a search
on emacs and fontifying.  It looks like emacs is fontifying this file which
is a perl script.  The search mentioned increasing this font-lock parameter
to handle larger files sizes.  I didn't know if this would or was suppose to
help with the suspension problem.  Thus is why I brough it up here.

> > and it still locks up.  Has anybody had this problem???
>
> It could simply be hitting a bad regexp that has an exponential behavior.
> Setting debug-on-quit to t and hitting C-g during the hang might help
> figure out what's going on.
>

I will try to play with the debug.  Also the next time it suspends I'll just
post the results of the "top" command.  Hopefully this will provide more
information.

Michelle

Re: emacs suspension

[Michelle Roderick]

Here's the result of top:

load averages:  1.62,  0.90,  0.61
00:44:32
175 processes: 171 sleeping, 3 running, 1 on cpu
CPU states:  0.0% idle, 98.8% user,  1.2% kernel,  0.0% iowait,  0.0% swap
Memory: 1024M real, 315M free, 553M swap in use, 6349M swap free

  PID USERNAME THR PRI NICE  SIZE   RES STATE   TIME    CPU COMMAND
19274 mroderic   1  10    0   17M   16M run    37:58 94.98% emacs-21.2
  195 root       5  50    0 7496K 5864K sleep 245:22  3.03% automountd
25852 mroderic   1  58    0 1920K 1640K cpu     0:00  0.35% top
14950 pbelmond   1  48    0   14M   12M sleep   9:04  0.16% xemacs-21.4.8
26858 root       1  59    0  195M   57M sleep 914:52  0.09% Xsun
 4117 pbelmond   1  49    0   84M   69M sleep  62.5H  0.06% netscape
 4044 pbelmond   8  59    0   11M 8776K sleep  28:56  0.04% dtwm
25853 cpack      1  37    2 1056K  888K sleep   0:00  0.04% sh
25854 cpack      1  37    2 1072K  728K sleep   0:00  0.04% tail
25855 cpack      1  47    2 1144K  976K sleep   0:00  0.04% vmstat
 4084 pbelmond   4  49    0   68M   26M sleep   3:34  0.02% acroread
16994 pbelmond  10  49    0   62M   52M run     4:18  0.02% netscape-bin
 4107 pbelmond   4  49    0   28M 3448K sleep   2:46  0.01% acroread
 1179 root      12  58    0 2760K 2032K sleep   6:44  0.01% mibiisa
  125 root       1  58    0 1664K  728K sleep   5:27  0.00% in.rdisc

<gebser@speakeasy.net> wrote in message
news:mailman.1457.1071025491.399.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org...
>
> Yes, but I was hoping to see the whole page-- including the processes
> actually running and how much CPU, memory, etc. they were using.  Try it
> again in a full screen window and give us the entire page of output.
>
> We do get _some_ information from what you provided: You have a lot of
> processes running.  Do you really need them all?  The CPU is booked to
> the max with user processes (user applications).  But you do have enough
> swap.  Having more physical memory would help things run faster.
> Normally a gig should be enough, but maybe you're running some
> memory-heavy stuff.
>
> You could also make emacs run faster and smaller by byte-compiling
> relevant *.el files.
>
>
> hth,
> ken
>
>
> At 17:08 (UTC-0700) on Tue, 9 Dec 2003 Michelle Roderick said:
>
> = Is this what you wanted to see?
> =
> = load averages:  0.88,  0.35,  0.23
> = 01:00:02
> = 161 processes: 158 sleeping, 1 running, 1 stopped, 1 on cpu
> = CPU states:  0.0% idle, 99.4% user,  0.6% kernel,  0.0% iowait,  0.0%
swap
> = Memory: 1024M real, 473M free, 479M swap in use, 6422M swap free
> =
> = <gebser@speakeasy.net> wrote in message
> = news:mailman.1364.1070916279.399.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org...
> = >
> = > I've used emacs for files much larger than 450k-- files up to several
> = > megs-- and never had such a lock-up.  Perhaps I wasn't ever using
> = > font-lock with them, I'm not sure.
> = >
> = > If you're on a *nix box, do "top n 1" in a term when this happens and
> = > paste it back to us.
> = >
> = > hth,
> = > ken
> = >
> = > At 10:17 (UTC-0700) on Mon, 8 Dec 2003 Michelle Roderick said:
> = >
> = > = I am using emacs-21.2 in vip mode.  I have a large file that I am
> = working
> = > = with (450Kbytes) and it occasionally suspends when I go into insert
mode
> = or
> = > = if I do a line copy/paste.  The suspension can last around 30
minutes.
> = I
> = > = changed my buffer size to:
> = > =
> = > = (setq font-lock-maximum-size 524288)
> = > =
> = > = and it still locks up.  Has anybody had this problem???
> = > =
> = > = Regards,
> = > =
> = > = Michelle
> = > =
> = > =
> = > =
> = > = _______________________________________________
> = > = Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
> = > = Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> = > = http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs
> = > =
> = >
> = >
> = >
> =
> =
> = _______________________________________________
> = Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
> = Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> = http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs
> =
>
>
>

Re: emacs suspension

[gebser]

Underpowered hardware isn't the problem, nor another process taking over
the CPU.  It's apparent that the operation you're running in emacs is
soaking up all the processing time.  So you're probably going to need to
debug that, as already suggested.  As a quick test, you might try 
loading the same file, but without font-lock.


At 16:53 (UTC-0700) on Wed, 10 Dec 2003 Michelle Roderick said:

= Here's the result of top:
= 
= load averages:  1.62,  0.90,  0.61
= 00:44:32
= 175 processes: 171 sleeping, 3 running, 1 on cpu
= CPU states:  0.0% idle, 98.8% user,  1.2% kernel,  0.0% iowait,  0.0% swap
= Memory: 1024M real, 315M free, 553M swap in use, 6349M swap free
= 
=   PID USERNAME THR PRI NICE  SIZE   RES STATE   TIME    CPU COMMAND
= 19274 mroderic   1  10    0   17M   16M run    37:58 94.98% emacs-21.2
=   195 root       5  50    0 7496K 5864K sleep 245:22  3.03% automountd
= 25852 mroderic   1  58    0 1920K 1640K cpu     0:00  0.35% top
= 14950 pbelmond   1  48    0   14M   12M sleep   9:04  0.16% xemacs-21.4.8
= 26858 root       1  59    0  195M   57M sleep 914:52  0.09% Xsun
=  4117 pbelmond   1  49    0   84M   69M sleep  62.5H  0.06% netscape
=  4044 pbelmond   8  59    0   11M 8776K sleep  28:56  0.04% dtwm
= 25853 cpack      1  37    2 1056K  888K sleep   0:00  0.04% sh
= 25854 cpack      1  37    2 1072K  728K sleep   0:00  0.04% tail
= 25855 cpack      1  47    2 1144K  976K sleep   0:00  0.04% vmstat
=  4084 pbelmond   4  49    0   68M   26M sleep   3:34  0.02% acroread
= 16994 pbelmond  10  49    0   62M   52M run     4:18  0.02% netscape-bin
=  4107 pbelmond   4  49    0   28M 3448K sleep   2:46  0.01% acroread
=  1179 root      12  58    0 2760K 2032K sleep   6:44  0.01% mibiisa
=   125 root       1  58    0 1664K  728K sleep   5:27  0.00% in.rdisc
= 
= <gebser@speakeasy.net> wrote in message
= news:mailman.1457.1071025491.399.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org...
= >
= > Yes, but I was hoping to see the whole page-- including the processes
= > actually running and how much CPU, memory, etc. they were using.  Try it
= > again in a full screen window and give us the entire page of output.
= >
= > We do get _some_ information from what you provided: You have a lot of
= > processes running.  Do you really need them all?  The CPU is booked to
= > the max with user processes (user applications).  But you do have enough
= > swap.  Having more physical memory would help things run faster.
= > Normally a gig should be enough, but maybe you're running some
= > memory-heavy stuff.
= >
= > You could also make emacs run faster and smaller by byte-compiling
= > relevant *.el files.
= >
= >
= > hth,
= > ken
= >
= >
= > At 17:08 (UTC-0700) on Tue, 9 Dec 2003 Michelle Roderick said:
= >
= > = Is this what you wanted to see?
= > =
= > = load averages:  0.88,  0.35,  0.23
= > = 01:00:02
= > = 161 processes: 158 sleeping, 1 running, 1 stopped, 1 on cpu
= > = CPU states:  0.0% idle, 99.4% user,  0.6% kernel,  0.0% iowait,  0.0%
= swap
= > = Memory: 1024M real, 473M free, 479M swap in use, 6422M swap free
= > =
= > = <gebser@speakeasy.net> wrote in message
= > = news:mailman.1364.1070916279.399.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org...
= > = >
= > = > I've used emacs for files much larger than 450k-- files up to several
= > = > megs-- and never had such a lock-up.  Perhaps I wasn't ever using
= > = > font-lock with them, I'm not sure.
= > = >
= > = > If you're on a *nix box, do "top n 1" in a term when this happens and
= > = > paste it back to us.
= > = >
= > = > hth,
= > = > ken
= > = >
= > = > At 10:17 (UTC-0700) on Mon, 8 Dec 2003 Michelle Roderick said:
= > = >
= > = > = I am using emacs-21.2 in vip mode.  I have a large file that I am
= > = working
= > = > = with (450Kbytes) and it occasionally suspends when I go into insert
= mode
= > = or
= > = > = if I do a line copy/paste.  The suspension can last around 30
= minutes.
= > = I
= > = > = changed my buffer size to:
= > = > =
= > = > = (setq font-lock-maximum-size 524288)
= > = > =
= > = > = and it still locks up.  Has anybody had this problem???
= > = > =
= > = > = Regards,
= > = > =
= > = > = Michelle
= > = > =
= > = > =
= > = > =
= > = > = _______________________________________________
= > = > = Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
= > = > = Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
= > = > = http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs
= > = > =
= > = >
= > = >
= > = >
= > =
= > =
= > = _______________________________________________
= > = Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
= > = Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
= > = http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs
= > =
= >
= >
= >
= 
= 
= _______________________________________________
= Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
= Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
= http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs
= 

Re: emacs suspension

[Stefan Monnier]

> I didn't know why emacs was taking so long to load this file and also it was
> suspending (the problem I'm currently inquiring about).

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "suspending" (it normally means
to stop working by relinquising the CPU, like when you hit C-z or when
you close a laptop).

> So I did a search on emacs and fontifying.

That still does not explain why "fontifying".  Was it just a strange gut
feeling or was there some indication that it was related ?

> It looks like emacs is fontifying this file which
> is a perl script.  The search mentioned increasing this font-lock parameter
> to handle larger files sizes.  I didn't know if this would or was suppose to
> help with the suspension problem.  Thus is why I brough it up here.

It only changes the maximum file size past which fontification is
turned off.  And by default in Emacs-21, jit-lock is turned on in which
case font-lock-maximum-size is ignored anyway.

>> > and it still locks up.  Has anybody had this problem???
>> 
>> It could simply be hitting a bad regexp that has an exponential behavior.
>> Setting debug-on-quit to t and hitting C-g during the hang might help
>> figure out what's going on.

> I will try to play with the debug.

What is the major-mode used for this file ?
Can you try the M-: (setq debug-on-error t) RET and then use C-g ?

> Also the next time it suspends I'll just post the results of the "top"

Nah, the output of "top" is just useless.


        Stefan

Re: emacs suspension

[Michelle Roderick]

"Stefan Monnier" <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote in message
news:jwv8yljwgs4.fsf-monnier+gnu.emacs.help@vor.iro.umontreal.ca...
> > I didn't know why emacs was taking so long to load this file and also it
was
> > suspending (the problem I'm currently inquiring about).
>
> I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "suspending" (it normally means
> to stop working by relinquising the CPU, like when you hit C-z or when
> you close a laptop).

It temporarily hangs.  I can't click on the screen.  Sometimes the screen
blacks out.  I can't move the cursor.  It hangs but then comes back, but
after about 30 minutes.... extremely unproductive.

>
> > So I did a search on emacs and fontifying.
>
> That still does not explain why "fontifying".  Was it just a strange gut
> feeling or was there some indication that it was related ?
>
> > It looks like emacs is fontifying this file which
> > is a perl script.  The search mentioned increasing this font-lock
parameter
> > to handle larger files sizes.  I didn't know if this would or was
suppose to
> > help with the suspension problem.  Thus is why I brough it up here.
>
> It only changes the maximum file size past which fontification is
> turned off.  And by default in Emacs-21, jit-lock is turned on in which
> case font-lock-maximum-size is ignored anyway.
>

Good to know...

> >> > and it still locks up.  Has anybody had this problem???
> >>
> >> It could simply be hitting a bad regexp that has an exponential
behavior.
> >> Setting debug-on-quit to t and hitting C-g during the hang might help
> >> figure out what's going on.
>
> > I will try to play with the debug.
>
> What is the major-mode used for this file ?

CPerl

> Can you try the M-: (setq debug-on-error t) RET and then use C-g ?
>
I'll try...

Regards,

Michelle

Re: emacs suspension

[Stefan Monnier]

> It temporarily hangs.  I can't click on the screen.  Sometimes the screen
> blacks out.  I can't move the cursor.  It hangs but then comes back, but
> after about 30 minutes.... extremely unproductive.

I'm almost positive it's a bad-regexp issue.
It's stuck for 30 minutes in the regexp-matcher (typically called
via re-search-forward).

So an elisp backtrace (via debug-on-quit and C-g) or a C backtrace would
most likely be all that's necessary to pinpoint the culprit.


        Stefan