Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!unmvax!bbx!tantalum!edsr!cdm
From: cdm@edsr.eds.com (Clifford David Morrison)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Memory management in OpenWindows  vs. X11R4
Keywords: memory management OpenWindows X11R4 hog
Message-ID: <575@edsr.eds.com>
Date: 10 May 91 13:29:49 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Electronic Data Systems, R&D.
Lines: 39

I posted this to the xpert mailing list a while back, but didn't figure out
the problem.  I'm putting this on comp.windows.x in hopes of finding a wider
audience.

If I run an XView program of ours on the X11R4 server on a Sparc IPC, the 
server grows by 7 meg!  When the application is quit, the memory is NOT
given up.  There is an increase on a monochrome server as well, but it is
not as substantial (about 1/8th as much).

It is not a leak, because I can run the application again and it doesn't
take any additonal memory.  However, you can imagine that running a couple of
these applications at a time will quickly eat up swap space and degrade
performance on an IPC.

If I run the same scenario on the OpenWindows 2.0 server on the IPC,
the extra server memory is freed when the application quits.

Strangely, I am told by coworkers that running the same scenario on a binary-
compatible color Solbourne with the same x11r4 server and application 
does not permanently consume server memory.

Anyone familiar with this care to comment?  Is there a way to get the 
standard X server to "garbage-collect."  If not, should I report this as
a bug?  Could this possibly be an operating system problem?  What does 
OpenWindows do differently?

<Cliff>

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|  Clifford D. Morrison                |  Work Phone:  (214) 661-6297         |
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