ad51fef1aa
The separate threads for background updates were added to top in the commit shown below. At that time cleanup logic was added to end-of-job processing to cancel any active threads and destroy any semaphores then in use. That seemed like simple good stewardship with an added benefit of avoiding potential valgrind 'possibly lost' warnings for 320 byte blocks. Those blocks represented an initial stack allocation for each of three threads. All of that worked perfectly if such code was executed under the main thread. In other words, if the keyboard or a signal directed to any thread was used to trigger program end. However, it might not always be the case. Each of those 'refresh' routines supporting a separate thread interacts with a newlib interface. As a result, each is required to check the library's return result. Should some error be detected, 'error_exit' is called. Now we've got big problems with that eoj cleanup code. One can't 'pthread_cancel' and 'pthread_join' a thread from withing that same thread. Thus, when an error was returned by the library with threads active, top would hang with no possibility of removal short of a reboot. So, this commit only executes that cancel/join cleanup code when we are running under the main thread. Should program end be triggered by a library error under some sibling thread, all such cleanup will now be bypassed. In the latter case, we will rely on documentation that says any thread calling exit(3) will end every thread. [ now, the only time we'll see any valgrind warnings ] [ is with a library error, which is the least likely ] [ scenario for running valgrind & top to begin with. ] [ besides, if the valgrind warnings became a problem ] [ one could easily add a 'warning-suppression' file. ] Reference(s): . Sep 2021, top introduced threads commit 29f0a674a85bfb92443c56f070956a7dd60bb5f7 Signed-off-by: Jim Warner <james.warner@comcast.net>
procps
procps is a set of command line and full-screen utilities that provide information out of the pseudo-filesystem most commonly located at /proc. This filesystem provides a simple interface to the kernel data structures. The programs of procps generally concentrate on the structures that describe the processess running on the system.
The following programs are found in procps:
- free - Report the amount of free and used memory in the system
- kill - Send a signal to a process based on PID
- pgrep - List processes based on name or other attributes
- pkill - Send a signal to a process based on name or other attributes
- pmap - Report memory map of a process
- ps - Report information of processes
- pwdx - Report current directory of a process
- skill - Obsolete version of pgrep/pkill
- slabtop - Display kernel slab cache information in real time
- snice - Renice a process
- sysctl - Read or Write kernel parameters at run-time
- tload - Graphical representation of system load average
- top - Dynamic real-time view of running processes
- uptime - Display how long the system has been running
- vmstat - Report virtual memory statistics
- w - Report logged in users and what they are doing
- watch - Execute a program periodically, showing output fullscreen
Reporting Bugs
There are a few ways of reporting bugs or feature requests:
- Your distribution's bug reporter. If you are using a distribution your first port of call is their bug tracker. This is because each distribution has their own patches and way of dealing with bugs. Also bug reporting often does not need any subscription to websites.
- GitLab Issues - To the left of this page is the issue tracker. You can report bugs here.
- Email list - We have an email list (see below) where you can report bugs. The problem with this method is bug reports often get lost and cannot be tracked. This is especially a big problem when its something that will take time to resolve.
If you need to report bugs, there is more details on the Bug Reporting page.
Email List
The email list for the developers and users of procps is found at http://www.freelists.org/archive/procps/ This email list discusses the development of procps and is used by distributions to also forward or discuss bugs.