Re: rsync failures - possible ulimit issues?

On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 02:56:20PM -0600, Jim MacKenzie wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm a hobbyist that happens to own an interesting VAXstation 4000/60.  
> I've had OpenBSD running on it for some time, updated to 4.5 now.
>
> Recently I've been setting up rsync to make backups of each of my hobby  
> machines.  All of my other machines have gone off without a hitch but I 
> keep getting errors on the VAX:
>
> [sender] make_file(usr/obj/games/fortune/datfiles/limerick.dat,*,2)
> [sender] make_file(usr/obj/games/fortune/fortune/.depend,*,2)
> ERROR: out of memory in flist_expand [sender]
> rsync error: error allocating core memory buffers (code 22) at 
> util.c(117) [sender=3.0.5]
> _exit_cleanup(code=22, file=util.c, line=117): about to call exit(22)
>
> This is on -vvv.  The failure occurs near this point (but not always at 
> this exact point) consistently.
>
> My initial instinct after ruling out that the system is not exhausting 
> RAM (it has 104 MB, maximum for the machine, and is not running X nor 
> doing much so there is quite a lot of free RAM) was that it was a data 
> space problem so I checked ulimit:
>
> # ulimit -a
> time(cpu-seconds)    unlimited
> file(blocks)         unlimited
> coredump(blocks)     unlimited
> data(kbytes)         32768
> stack(kbytes)        8192
> lockedmem(kbytes)    32718
> memory(kbytes)       97852
> nofiles(descriptors) 128
> processes            158
>
> Changing the limit from 32 MB does not work.  Editing /etc/login.conf to  
> permit a login group with unlimited credentials results in the same 32 MB 
> limit.
>
> So, I suppose I have two questions:
>
> 1.  Is this likely my problem, as I surmise?

Yes

> 2.  If it is, is there some way this limit can be increased on the VAX?  
> Am I missing something, or does it require a change to the code?

MAXDSIZ in /usr/src/sys/arch/vax/include/vmparam.h is limited to 32MB.
You could try to increase that limit, either by editing the header or with
a new kernel configuration.
Of course all kinds of bad things may happen...

>
> In case it matters, here is my rsync batch file:
>
> # cat backup.sh
> rsync -vvv -a -e ssh --progress --delete --exclude /usr/src --exclude  
> /dev --exclude /public /  
> adelaide.photojim.prv:/home/jim/backup/maroochydore/
>
> (/usr/src and /public are excluded because they are NFS mounts so I back  
> them up by backing up my NFS server.)
>
> I know this is an ancient machine, but this problem is irritating me.  :)
>
> I have to warn you that I'm not a coder, just a serious hobbyist.
>
> Thanks much,
>
> Jim