op-reth The database read transaction has been open for too long triggers memory leak

[jonathanudd]

Bug Description
Yesterday several of our Base mainnet archive nodes saw this warning in the logs The database read transaction has been open for too long triggers memory leak and then used up all memory on the machine where they where running.

A similar thing happened to us a while back and we thought it was due to heavy eth_call but it was not a 100% confirmed. See this issue for more info.

After a restart the nodes are working fine again.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Have a running op-reth Base mainnet archive node
2. Send heavy eth_calls
3. Node stops syncing
4. A restart seems to let the node start syncing again

Expected behavior
The nodes don't unexpectedly use up all available memory.

Environment Information:
Ubuntu 24.04
LXC/LXD
op-reth 1.10.2

Configurations:

node --http --http.addr 0.0.0.0 --http.port 8545 --ws --ws.addr
  0.0.0.0 --ws.port 8546 --authrpc.addr 0.0.0.0 --authrpc.port 8551 --authrpc.jwtsecret
  /home/reth/jwtsecret --metrics 0.0.0.0:9001 --chain base --http.api eth,net,web3,debug,trace
  --ws.api eth,net,web3,debug,trace --rpc.gascap 500000000 --rollup.disable-tx-pool-gossip
  --port 30310 --rpc.max-logs-per-response 100000 --rollup.sequencer-http https://mainnet-sequencer.base.org

Logs:
These kind of logs continue until the node/container stopped responding

Feb 16 23:05:13 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]: 2026-02-16T23:05:13.835896Z  INFO Canonical chain committed number=42246883 hash=0xebaffb84aad37028ce51cd2a5c90197962ec9300d8fd03b301f2021ec06d35be elapsed=598.218µs
Feb 16 23:05:13 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]: 2026-02-16T23:05:13.839337Z  INFO Status connected_peers=29 latest_block=42246883
Feb 16 23:05:15 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]: 2026-02-16T23:05:15.258617Z  INFO Received block from consensus engine number=42246884 hash=0xe76ac7b0baa497a36adb2161b5d8b4285eaff67f67e7148bec973f39b11b587d
Feb 16 23:05:15 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]: 2026-02-16T23:05:15.888063Z  INFO State root task finished state_root=0x98cadd3938d8f9412f0f4948bd98ac64a023e674b098864ed27e502577ce9a7c elapsed=397.852731ms
Feb 16 23:05:15 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]: 2026-02-16T23:05:15.888391Z  INFO Block added to canonical chain number=42246884 hash=0xe76ac7b0baa497a36adb2161b5d8b4285eaff67f67e7148bec973f39b11b587d peers=29 txs=228 gas_used=62.07Mgas gas_throughput=100.46Mgas/second gas_limit=375.00Mgas full=16.6% base_fee=0.00Gwei blobs=53 excess_blobs=0 elapsed=617.839333ms
Feb 16 23:05:15 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]: 2026-02-16T23:05:15.921364Z  INFO Canonical chain committed number=42246884 hash=0xe76ac7b0baa497a36adb2161b5d8b4285eaff67f67e7148bec973f39b11b587d elapsed=2.209582ms
Feb 16 23:05:17 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]: 2026-02-16T23:05:17.258605Z  INFO Received block from consensus engine number=42246885 hash=0x5caa2a75e05c60703c64b506cce123277bc5b60ab8af00fefd64f6d0836db64f
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]: 2026-02-16T23:06:38.819982Z  WARN The database read transaction has been open for too long. Backtrace:
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    0: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    1: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    2: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    3: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    4: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    5: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    6: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    7: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    8: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    9: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:   10: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:   11: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:   12: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:41 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:  open_duration=63.640757792s self.txn_id=251556706
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]: 2026-02-16T23:06:38.827284Z  WARN The database read transaction has been open for too long. Backtrace:
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    0: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    1: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    2: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    3: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    4: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    5: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    6: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    7: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    8: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    9: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:   10: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:   11: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:   12: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:  open_duration=66.195856432s self.txn_id=251556706
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]: 2026-02-16T23:06:38.827266Z  WARN The database read transaction has been open for too long. Backtrace:
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    0: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    1: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    2: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    3: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    4: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    5: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    6: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    7: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    8: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    9: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:   10: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:   11: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:   12: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:  open_duration=69.953471765s self.txn_id=251556706
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]: 2026-02-16T23:06:38.823314Z  WARN The database read transaction has been open for too long. Backtrace:
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    0: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    1: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    2: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    3: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    4: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    5: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    6: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    7: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    8: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:    9: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:   10: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:   11: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:   12: <unknown>
Feb 16 23:06:59 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]:  open_duration=61.517687344s self.txn_id=251556706
Feb 16 23:08:04 juju-b8716e-0 reth[3590446]: 2026-02-16T23:06:38.820239Z  WARN The database read transaction has been open for too long. Backtrace:

Additional context

[jonathanudd]

This happens repeatedly across all our nodes.