2.4.28: __alloc_pages: 0-order allocation failed (gfp=0x1d2/0) ?

2.4.28: __alloc_pages: 0-order allocation failed (gfp=0x1d2/0) ?

[rrcwjpgr]

Hello,

first thanks for your great support on the Linux kernel.
I have a problem with kernel 2.4.28 and maybe somebody has an idea about my problem. When I type dmesg, I get this error messages:
__alloc_pages: 0-order allocation failed (gfp=0x1d2/0)
VM: killing process python

For any kind of reason a python script is killed.
What this kind of error message means?
Is this the memory killer? This would mean that maybe I have a memory leak in the python script?


Best regards,
saf
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Re: 2.4.28: __alloc_pages: 0-order allocation failed (gfp=0x1d2/0) ?

[Willy Tarreau]

Hello,

On Mon, Dec 18, 2006 at 11:32:43AM +0100, rrcwjpgr wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> first thanks for your great support on the Linux kernel.
> I have a problem with kernel 2.4.28 and maybe somebody has an idea about my problem. When I type dmesg, I get this error messages:
> __alloc_pages: 0-order allocation failed (gfp=0x1d2/0)
> VM: killing process python
> 
> For any kind of reason a python script is killed.
> What this kind of error message means?
> Is this the memory killer?

exactly !

> This would mean that maybe I have a memory leak in the python script?

Generally, when you get this on scripts written in such "high level"
languages, this is because you fill variables with a file which does
not fit into memory. I have often seen this in people's perl scripts,
and sometimes even in shell scripts. Eg: 

  count=$(cat file)

Where file is unexpectedly big, or even a link to /dev/zero. This is
an excellent OOM trigger.

You can use ulimit (man bash) to limit the amount of memory your script
can use. At least it will not make the system go ill.

Regards,
Willy