[pmmail-list] Fwd: Re: Debugging PMMail CPU bug?

[quaero@myrealbox.com]

On Sat, 01 Sep 2001 09:44:10 +0200 (CDT), John Bijnens wrote:

Hi,

>Hi there,
>
>I'm using PMMail/2 2.10.2010
>Until some time ago I experienced from time to time the same thing as you do.
>I some cases my PC became so unresponsive due to the CPU usage of PMMail that the 
>only way to come out of it was to reboot my PC.
>Then out of the blue this behavior suddenly disappeared.
>I'm not quite sure what has been the cause of this change.

For the case here, PMMail/2 2.10.2010 was the last bug-free version
where this particular bug is concerned.  Every version after 2.10.2010
was plagued by this bug to a different degree.

>What I think is the cause is the following.
>I have 4 mail boxes.  Two of them are automatically checked every 20 minutes or 
>so by PMMail.  Then at a certain moment I began to use other mail checkers like 
>e.g. the one in SmartBar and forgot to switch the checking off in PMMail. So 
>perhaps a conflict in a simultaneous checking by both PMMail and another checker 
>is the cause.  I let PMMail check one mail box and Smartbar another one (this is 
>so because I use my PC at home and at work where we still use OS/2 as our main 
>OS).  I don't know if this had anything to do with it, but I've now no problems 
>anymore.
>
>I'll hope you can do something with this info.

Thanks for your feedback.  I think you are on to something.  The fact
that PMMail/2 doesn't lock up the CPU at a set time and may run for
between less than an hour to hours before doing so indicate that the
lockup bug only happens when some internal conflict happens.  I have 8
mail accounts and all of them are set to retrieve mail from between
3500 to 3600 seconds.  I try not to use the same value for any one
account.  

As a tangent, this is one area where I *strongly* believe could be
improved upon.  I have recently tried MR/2 ICE and to my surprise, the
"timed retrieval" feature could be set in "hours" instead of mere
seconds (max=1 hr).  I believe this would go a long way into easing the
situation for users who need to keep track of multiple accounts.

The CPU limiter program which I am using reports the following after a
kill:

01/09/2001 17:26:58 [Debug] Process=SYSINIT PID=1 CPU=0% avgCPU=0%.
01/09/2001 17:26:58 [Debug] Process=CMD.EXE PID=83 CPU=0% avgCPU=0%.
01/09/2001 17:26:58 [Debug] Process=LIMITER.EXE PID=84 CPU=0%
avgCPU=0%.
01/09/2001 17:26:58 [Debug] Process=PMMAIL.EXE PID=80 CPU=100%
avgCPU=100%.
01/09/2001 17:26:58 [Warn] Overdozed process "F:\PMMAIL\PMMAIL.EXE",
PID=80, Prio=0200, CPU=100% - kill it.
01/09/2001 17:26:58 [Debug] Process=PRONEWS.EXE PID=79 CPU=0%
avgCPU=0%.
01/09/2001 17:26:58 [Debug] Process=SB2_PIPE.EXE PID=77 CPU=0%
avgCPU=0%.
01/09/2001 17:26:58 [Debug] Process=NETSCAPE.EXE PID=61 CPU=0%
avgCPU=0%.
01/09/2001 17:26:58 [Debug] Process=CMD.EXE PID=55 CPU=0% avgCPU=0%.

The auto-kill is set to only happen if the CPU is locked up for more
than 30 seconds.

I would appreciate it very much if PMMail/2 support would please help
me resolve this issue as it's rather difficult to continue using this
otherwise wonderful mailer.

Thanks.

Nick

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