Cache and white screen of death

[proo]

Hi there.

I have a problem that keeps coming up too often. I get the white screen every now and then.
When i initially encountered this problem, a couple of years ago, i read somewhere (unfortunately i can not find that topic now) that maybe it was the cache and that was correct.

So what i do, is i empty the cache folder via ftp and the forum is back on.

But sooner or later i have to do it again.
My forum is relatively small and not too busy.

Is there any long term solution for this problem?

[Kindred]

Well, you have to figure out what is CAUSING the WSoD...  look in your SERVER error logs.

[GigaWatt]

My forum is relatively small and not too busy.

If it's a small forum, disable cache, see if that does the trick. I got it disabled on my forum and, as yours, mine is also a small one and not too busy.

[proo]

Thanks, i will try disabling cache and wait.

I'm not able now to see the particular error in server's error log, because it just appears the last 300, even minor ones, so i need to do it the exact time that the wsod occurs 

[GigaWatt]

Disable caching, let a week or two pass, if nothing happens, (probably) problem solved .

[proo]

I havent disabled caching yet so today again (3 days later) i got again the wsod.

The weird thing is that at the server log nothing appears as an error log.

The file that causes the wsod is a data_efdff-etc-etc-...-SMF-modSettings.php file 

I have disabled cache now.

[GigaWatt]

It may be related to a mod...

Let's see if turning off caching helps .

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

This doc may be of use, specially if you are unable to catch the error with the logs available to you.
https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/What_the_white_screen_of_death_means

[GigaWatt]

Hmmm... some useful tips and code snippets, thanks .

[proo]

After a sufficient time period    i would like to share with you that disabling the cache did the trick.

Marking this as solved.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

The cache itself is not the cause though, something else is amiss if it does that.

[proo]

If its mod related i haven't found it 
I've tried all the recommendations above but no luck.
It never occurred again since i disabled the cache.

[Arantor]

Yes, the issue is that one of the cache files is corrupted. But the only known causes of that were fixed years ago, so we thought, in 2.0.6 or 2.0.7...

Might be nice if you could turn the file cache on, let it break, then attach the relevant file here so we can look why it breaks...

[proo]

Cool, i'll do that mate.
Despite the fact that the wsod brings me nightmares 

[Arantor]

Thanks, I'd appreciate it so we can fix it properly

[proo]

And its down...

It took my Forum a couple of weeks but it finally crashed 2 times in 2 days.
Looking at the server's error log i can see that the last entry is on July.
I deleted this form the cashe folder and the forum is back on: data_81b6bed81b368aa809a7805b576a724c-SMF-modSettings.php

Any suggestions?

[Arantor]

Yes, attach the file here before you deleted it so whatever the root cause is can be fixed...

[proo]

there you go mate

[Arantor]

Thanks for attaching!

So it looks like a variant of the original bug that I thought I'd fixed all those years ago. Though why it's failing there, that's another story entirely.

I'll be able to do more when I'm not on mobile but early indications are that it's a file write boundary bug. Which shouldn't be a thing but apparently still is.

Can you also attach your Sources/Load.php file please?

[proo]

Thanks for having a look at it Arantor.

Here is the Load file.