1000's of 21,192KB Core files every week

Started by snadge, April 12, 2017, 07:26:01 AM

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snadge

Hello,

I have these files appearing in my server, at first it was just a few a week, but now its seems to generate MANY per day, each one is exactly 21,192KB in size and most are milliseconds apart with how quick they are being made

I got a warning from my host that I was going over my 2.5GB limit just 1 week after deleting about 400MB worth of these core files.. I use 200-300MB storage normally

so I downloaded all THREE GB (made in 7 days or so) and have them on my PC and have added one to this message in a ZIP file.

any help would be great because it seems now I have to do a manual clear out of all the .core files (whatever they are)

thanks

Illori

ask your host to look into the cause, they should be able to tell you and/or fix it on their end.

Arantor

A core dump is PHP crashing. A script should not normally cause PHP to crash, so it's usually a bug in PHP itself - or more likely their specific version/build/extensions of it.


snadge

they replied with

Quote"
Hi Paul,

Thank you for getting in touch!

We are not having any problems with PHP. However, it may be an issue with the code on your website. I have checked the last entries of the PHP error log in your account. Here are the last entries from yesterday and today:

[11-Apr-2017 03:07:10 Europe/London] PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected '.' in /home/techtalk/public_html/Themes/default/Who.template.php on line 95
[11-Apr-2017 06:36:04 Europe/London] PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected '.' in /home/techtalk/public_html/Themes/default/Who.template.php on line 95
[11-Apr-2017 17:01:53 Europe/London] PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected '.' in /home/techtalk/public_html/Themes/default/Who.template.php on line 95
[12-Apr-2017 06:21:28 Europe/London] PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected '.' in /home/techtalk/public_html/Themes/default/Who.template.php on line 95
[12-Apr-2017 08:47:27 Europe/London] PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected '.' in /home/techtalk/public_html/Themes/default/Who.template.php on line 95
[12-Apr-2017 12:14:45 Europe/London] PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected '.' in /home/techtalk/public_html/Themes/default/Who.template.php on line 95
[12-Apr-2017 12:14:45 Europe/London] PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected '.' in /home/techtalk/public_html/Themes/default/Who.template.php on line 95
[12-Apr-2017 12:41:46 Europe/London] PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected '.' in /home/techtalk/public_html/Themes/default/Who.template.php on line 95
"

I can say that there more than how many there is above for today only!!

not being a PHP coder that means very little-to-nothing to me... I can find the template and line but dont know what the error is and what to change?

can anyone assist please?

thanks

Shambles

I'm fairly certain those [trapped] php errors wouldn't be causing your core dumps.

Meh, attach your Who.template.php file and we'll have a look, though it sounds like a modification broke it.

snadge

thanks

we dont even use that template either...but besides the point:  2 core dumps have appeared since starting this thread

find attached the Who.Template.PHP file

and many thanks

@rjen

}.((strpos($member['query']['USER_AGENT'], 'Tapatalk') !== false || strpos($member['query']['USER_AGENT'], 'BYO') !== false )? '<img align="bottom" alt="Online" src="'.$boardurl. '/mobiquo/forum_icons/online.png" />


Tapatalk issue. Check that mod...
Running SMF 2.1 with latest TinyPortal at www.fjr-club.nl

Shambles

Looks like the Tapatalk mod was misinstalled 3 times.

Replace your file with the attached, then let us know if the core dumps cease.


Arantor

If a syntax error is forcing a core dump, the host still has issues.

snadge

#10
ok thank very much guys.. i will inform host TSO what you say too

snadge

still happening



a friend says he uses Tapatalk on the forum and it works but can be a little slower than usual but nothing out of the ordinary

note the time stamps, im wondering if thats when someone is using Tapatalk

im sure weve had Tapatalk issues in the past but that was years ago and sure it was there issue not ours

Illori

you need to talk to your host, if they will not help then you need to find a new host.

snadge

I have they said 1st time this:

"After investigating for some time, I now suspect that the core dumps may have been generated due to the scripts failing to complete. They likely failed to run fully due to an insufficient php memory limit, so I've now increased that to 768 MB which should be plenty. Let me know if this keeps occurring. "

still  happening then next reply was:

" Please monitor this specific account again and update me if the core-dump files are re-created again. Most of the time its due to insufficient php memory, which I've just upped to the limit."

still happening....awaiting reply

whats your thoughts on this guys#?

Arantor

PHP running into the soft memory limit has not in my experience ever caused a core dump. If it solves your problem, great, but it's probably a sign of something else wrong in their environment.

snadge

Quote from: Arantor on April 23, 2017, 03:21:05 PM
PHP running into the soft memory limit has not in my experience ever caused a core dump. If it solves your problem, great, but it's probably a sign of something else wrong in their environment.

thanks i will let them know, they seem to be willing to take on board advice I get from here...

been with them for years, no issue until i noticed them a few months back

snadge

they have replied with this (and sent me a 'coredumpbacktrace' file)

QuoteThe possible reason for the core files getting generated is when a php process is killed, apache creates core files under your account.

I've done some back tracing on those files:

Core was generated by `/usr/bin/php /home/techtalk/public_html/index.php'.

Looks like your scripts are exceeding the maximum memory limit.

Please find the back trace of the core files and pass that to your developers who can further look into your code and see what is causing that.

should I upload this CoreDumpBackTrace file?

many thanks in advance

edit: what I can add is that I joined AdSense 4 months ago and it seems to have happened along same time line, I have an Ad on Index.PHP - if Tapatalk was an issue, then I wonder if its related to tapatalk, adsense, both or god knows lol

Arantor

You can upload it but I honestly doubt it will have anything actually useful in it unless your host has compiled PHP with debug symbols, but it wouldn't hurt.

If it genuinely were the memory issue in question, there should be logs of it somewhere. Unless it's being killed because the system is running out of memory because they're running too many things on the server at once, too many customers sharing that server.

Gluz

That happened to me recently with one person that have a VPS to run his website, but a lot of things are not correctly configured and is a pain try to make things work.

Just days after reading this post that server start getting that core.xxxxxx files but that were only 9Mb and I increased the memory in the php.ini and no more core.xxxxx files.

It's not the fix to the problem, but to the effects, that some things are misconfigured in the server and cause PHP to terminate and generate that core.xxxxx files.

snadge

Thanks for all the help guys I really appreciate it, its a sticky one this....

my hosts last reply when I suggested it may be related to Tapatalk or Adsense Mod+Ads is below... but TBH im not 100% sure they DID start at same time as installing the Adsense mod and adverts, im starting to think it was shortly after installing the Adsense that it started happening so could still be something on the hosts end and not mine, they even admit they arent PHP orientated.

I found a slightly newer version of Tapatalk, previous one uninstalled fine, new one installed fine - checked PHP error log after CORE dump files appeared (after new install) and nothing since you guys repaired that code on 16th April.

Im not 100% certain but they do seem to coincide with Tapatalk access to my forum by 2 of my users (imagine if I had hundreds using Tapatalk!!!), they have acknowledged that the dump 'created' time-stamp relates to the same/similar time they have accessed the forum via Tapatalk.

QuoteIt's possible the issues are due to those additions you mentioned however this is kind out of our support's scope. This would have to be looked at by a developer as to why it's happening. We are not so PHP oriented so we can't really debug the issue for you. Having said that, if there is anything we can do to help, we'll assist you.

that makes me think that you guys would know more than them! - Ive had memory limits increased before in the past for slow/unresponsive website, cant remember if it was this host though as in 6 years Ive had 3, but, I've been with these for at least 3-4 years now so I think it was them.. and now you mention it, the site it hit and miss with its speed lately

Ive attached the backtrace file...i opened it in notepad and it just looks like gibberish/messy to me

a secondary question:
Can anyone tell me how to reset the forum back to new so every modification is removed but all the posts and users remain? - I may backup the forum, reset it and see if it still happens, if so this would verify that the issue is with them putting to much stress on the server, when I check the server stats earlier tonight they were all green ticks except for the HDD which is ALWAYS at 99% with RED X next to the HDD stats

thanks in advance guys, really do appreciate it.

EDIT: I forgot too say my hosts said that it seems like one of my scripts is using too much memory or causing a memory leak?
EDIT2: in relation to server performance..it just took 13 seconds to load the forum main page...which usually is near instant

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