Huge amount of zombie processes cause system hang

[ArthurDents]

Hi

I have discovered an issues with the uftpd which causes a huge amount of zombie processes, and eventually I loose contact with the target and a hard reset (power on/off) is required.

My test setup:
I have an ftp client that opens up an ftp connection to uftpd, and each 5 sec the client upload a number of log files (the log files are constantly being updated on the target). I do not disconnect between the transfers, i.e. the ftp connection is open during the session.
This can run fine for a days/a week, but sometimes there is a build up of zombie process, and each time my ftp client tries to upload files I get more zombie process.

E.g.:

# ps aux | grep defunct
root     14011  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        Z 13:21   0:00 [uftpd] <defunct> 
root     14012  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        Z 13:21   0:00 [uftpd] <defunct>
root     14013  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        Z 13:22   0:00 [uftpd] <defunct>
root     14014  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        Z 13:22   0:00 [uftpd] <defunct>
root     14024  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        Z 13:22   0:00 [uftpd] <defunct>
root     14025  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        Z 13:22   0:00 [uftpd] <defunct>
root     14030  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        Z 13:22   0:00 [uftpd] <defunct>
root     14031  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        Z 13:22   0:00 [uftpd] <defunct>
...

From console there are ftp error messages:

...
Failed accepting FTP client connection. Error 11: Resource temporarily unavailable
Failed accepting FTP client connection. Error 11: Resource temporarily unavailable
Failed accepting FTP client connection. Error 11: Resource temporarily unavailable
Failed accepting FTP client connection. Error 11: Resource temporarily unavailable 
...

Eventually there are around 11000-12000 zombie processes, and I loose contact with the unit. E.g. trying to run a simple ls command:

# ls
-sh: fork: retry: Resource temporarily unavailable
-sh: fork: retry: Resource temporarily unavailable
-sh: fork: retry: Resource temporarily unavailable

I haven't figured out what's trigger this. Maybe a network issue since it happen on two units at the same time, but this has not been verified.

Any idea what causing this?

I am using version 2.13.

Configuration:
uftpd -n -l err -o ftp=9013,tftp=0 /mnt/ramdisk

BR
AD

[troglobit]

Yeah, that doesn't look good :-/

I'm running uftpd as an inetd service myself, so I haven't seen this unfortunately. I'll try to get some time to look at it during the weekend.

[troglobit]

Hi again,

for quite some time now I've tried replicating your bug report. I'm running a server with:

uftpd -n -l debug -o ftp=9013 tftp=0 writable /foo

and a client that repeatedly uploads a file every five seconds, without shutting down the connection:

lftp -p 9013 localhost -e 'repeat -d 5 put README.md'

Unfortunately I've had no luck so far as to replicating your problem. Is there anything else you could tell me about your case? E.g.:

• What FTP client are you using?
• How big is the file you upload?
• Is it a slow link or sth, i.e., how long does the upload take approximately (seconds or minutes)

[ArthurDents]

Hi, thank you for looking into this. This is a tricky one, and I am afraid I do not have a lot of additional information.
The client is a custom windows application which has been used for many years. The files are a few kB to 200kB, connected to 100Mbit LAN, and the upload time is fast. The target is an arm processor (cross compiled).
If I remember correctly, the client receives the files also when the zombie processes starts to appear.
BR
AD

[troglobit]

OK, since this seems to be non-trivial, I'll unfortunately have to put it on the back burner. I have a few embedded ARM targets which I can test this on, but I'm not sure when I'll have time to try and reproduce this specific case. Sorry! :-/

First order of business though is to port uftpd to myLinux, which is my testing ground for most of my projects. That'll probably happen during the upcoming weekend.

[crisdawn]

I also find this problem when I compile uftpd in aarch64 and run it in an aarch64 ubuntu pc. Client I use simply tftp command in a x86 ubuntu pc.

[troglobit]

That's unfortunate. If you have a way of reliably reproducing this it world be very appreciated.

[ArthurDents]

A colleague of mine has been looked into this and has made this change:
In ftpcmd.c in line 1682, return -1; has been changed to exit(-1);

...
fail:
	free(ctrl);
	shutdown(sd, SHUT_RDWR);
	close(sd);

	exit(-1); //return -1;
...

This seems to fix the "zombie-problem".
We are using version 2.13.

BR
AD

[troglobit]

@ArthurDents wow, that's amazing, nice catch!

I'm left wondering if _exit(1) would be enough to fix the issue ...