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From: envbvs@epb2.lbl.gov (Brian V. Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix
Subject: Re: excessive "init" forking
Message-ID: <3088@helios.ee.lbl.gov>
Date: 25 Jul 89 18:56:21 GMT
References: <8490@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
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In article <8490@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, eric@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Eric Fielding) writes:

 [...]

< The question I have for the net
< is about a software problem. It appears that "/etc/init" is constantly forking
< off copies of itself, at a rate of about 50-100 times a minute. Each process
< lasts only a short time but meanwhile uses several hundred K of memory. At
< any one time "ps -aux" shows 5-10 "/etc/init -a" processes running. It seems
< like this constant process creation is greatly magnifying the hardware
< deficiencies to the point where the machine is unusable. I suspect that
< there is something wrong with the way the system is set up, but I don't know
< where to start looking. Thanks for reading this lengthy message.

Check your /etc/ttys to see what kinds of things are being started by 
init.  There should only be gettys and possibly window= lines (for the
old method of starting the X server).
One or more of those processes are dying, and init is starting it/them
up again.
_____________________________________
Brian V. Smith    (bvsmith@lbl.gov)
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
We don't need no signatures!