Arch Linux

2bluesc

Member

Registered: 2014-02-18

Posts: 10

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Excessive memory with journalctl on Arch, runs fine on Ubuntu

Hey all,

Stumbled on an issue where journalctl consumes 18-120MB (rss) when running a simple command `journalctl -afb -p info -n1 -o cat`.  An Ubuntu 16.04 box uses 1-6MB.  Anyone else seen this?

Checkout the

rss

columns below:

Arch Linux cloud server running sshguard and systemd-231:

$ ps aux --sort -rss | grep journalctl
 PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
6639  0.4 23.7 947548 119908 pts/1   S+   17:16   0:00 /usr/bin/journalctl -afb -p info -n1 -o cat SYSLOG_FACILITY=4 SYSLOG_FACILITY=10
6632  0.1  8.2 890204 41868 pts/4    S+   17:16   0:00 /usr/bin/journalctl -afb -n1 -o cat SYSLOG_FACILITY=4 SYSLOG_FACILITY=10
6700  0.0  8.3 857436 42220 pts/4    S+   17:21   0:00 /usr/bin/journalctl -f -n0 -o cat SYSLOG_FACILITY=4 SYSLOG_FACILITY=10

$ journalctl --version
systemd 231
+PAM -AUDIT -SELINUX -IMA -APPARMOR +SMACK -SYSVINIT +UTMP +LIBCRYPTSETUP +GCRYPT +GNUTLS +ACL +XZ +LZ4 +SECCOMP +BLKID +ELFUTILS +KMOD +IDN

Arch Linux workstation with systemd-231

  PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
27154  0.9  0.2 566856 43916 pts/9    S+   10:31   0:00 journalctl -f -n0 -p info
27006  0.1  0.1 562440 17928 pts/7    S+   10:31   0:00 journalctl -f -n0

Ubuntu 16.04 cloud server running systemd-229:

 PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
5670  0.0  1.1 128756  5660 pts/3    S+   17:36   0:00 journalctl -f -n0 -p info
5725  0.0  0.2  79604  1452 pts/6    S+   17:36   0:00 journalctl -f -n0

$ journalctl --version
systemd 229
+PAM +AUDIT +SELINUX +IMA +APPARMOR +SMACK +SYSVINIT +UTMP +LIBCRYPTSETUP +GCRYPT +GNUTLS +ACL +XZ -LZ4 +SECCOMP +BLKID +ELFUTILS +KMOD -IDN

I'm trying to figure out if this is an upstream systemd bug?  Or is it a resource hog due to a configuration or build detail on Arch?  Anyone have any other ideas or systems readily accessible to compare to?

Long winded write-up on my blog for those curious about other details.

Thanks!
- Kyle

berbae

Member

From: France

Registered: 2007-02-12

Posts: 1,302

Re: Excessive memory with journalctl on Arch, runs fine on Ubuntu

For info, here is what it produces on my machine:

$ ps aux --sort -rss | grep journalctl                                                                                                                                      
berbae    7941  0.0  0.4 165092 16140 pts/3    S+   22:03   0:00 journalctl -afb -p info -n1 -o cat