[GHC] #8604: Some stack/vmem limits (ulimit) combinations causing GHC to fail

[GHC]

#8604: Some stack/vmem limits (ulimit) combinations causing GHC to fail
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              Reporter:  clavin      |            Owner:
                  Type:  bug         |           Status:  new
              Priority:  normal      |        Milestone:
             Component:              |          Version:  7.6.3
  Documentation                      |         Keywords:
            Resolution:              |     Architecture:  x86_64 (amd64)
      Operating System:  Other       |       Difficulty:  Unknown
       Type of failure:              |       Blocked By:
  Documentation bug                  |  Related Tickets:
             Test Case:              |
              Blocking:              |
Differential Revisions:              |
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Description changed by thomie:

Old description:

> I have encountered a strange occurrence with GHC that was causing several
> GHC job failures on an SGE cluster. It turned out that there were other
> SGE users who needed an absurdly large stack size limit (set via 'ulimit
> -s') in the several gigabytes range.  The default stack size limit had to
> be raised for the entire cluster.
>
> Any job that was run on a machine where the virtual memory limit was less
> than or equal to 2X the stack size limit, GHC would crash with the
> following message:
>
> ghc: failed to create OS thread: Cannot allocate memory
>
> I am running on GHC 7.6.3 with a 64-bit RedHat Enterprise OS, version
> 5.5.
>
> To reproduce the error, I was able to create the following test case:
>
> [ ~]$ ulimit -v
> unlimited
> [ ~]$ ulimit -s
> 10240
> [ ~]$ ghc --version
> The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 7.6.3
> [ ~]$ ulimit -v 200000
> [ ~]$ ulimit -s 100000
> [ ~]$ ghc --version
> ghc: failed to create OS thread: Cannot allocate memory
>
> Several other programs work find using these settings, but GHC
> consistently has problems.  Is this a fundamental issue with how GHC
> operates or can this be addressed?

New description:

 I have encountered a strange occurrence with GHC that was causing several
 GHC job failures on an SGE cluster. It turned out that there were other
 SGE users who needed an absurdly large stack size limit (set via 'ulimit
 -s') in the several gigabytes range.  The default stack size limit had to
 be raised for the entire cluster.

 Any job that was run on a machine where the virtual memory limit was less
 than or equal to 2X the stack size limit, GHC would crash with the
 following message:

 ghc: failed to create OS thread: Cannot allocate memory

 I am running on GHC 7.6.3 with a 64-bit RedHat Enterprise OS, version 5.5.

 To reproduce the error, I was able to create the following test case:

 [ ~]$ ulimit -v
 unlimited
 [ ~]$ ulimit -s
 10240
 [ ~]$ ghc --version
 The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 7.8.3
 [ ~]$ ulimit -v 2000000
 [ ~]$ ulimit -s 1000000
 [ ~]$ ghc --version
 ghc: failed to create OS thread: Cannot allocate memory
 [ ~]$ ulimit -s  500000
 [ ~]$ ghc --version
 The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 7.8.3

 Several other programs work find using these settings, but GHC
 consistently has problems.  Is this a fundamental issue with how GHC
 operates or can this be addressed?

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Ticket URL: <http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/8604#comment:6>
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