bug#43389: 28.0.50; Emacs memory leaks using hard disk all time

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2020 09:40:53 +0200
> From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
> Cc: fweimer@redhat.com, 43389@debbugs.gnu.org, bugs@gnu.support, 
> dj@redhat.com,
>  michael_heerdegen@web.de, trevor@trevorbentley.com
> 
> > Cc: trevor@trevorbentley.com, bugs@gnu.support, fweimer@redhat.com,
> >  43389@debbugs.gnu.org, dj@redhat.com, michael_heerdegen@web.de
> > From: Carlos O'Donell <carlos@redhat.com>
> > Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2020 00:04:56 -0500
> > 
> > >> 448.2 MiB: Fmake_list
> > >> 270.3 MiB: in 262 places all over the place (below massif's threshold)
> > >> 704.0 MiB: list4 -> exec_byte_code
> > >> 109.7 MiB: F*_json_read_string_0 -> funcall_subr ...
> > >> 102.2 MiB: Flist -> exec_byte_code ...
> > >>  68.5 MiB: Fcopy_alist -> Fframe_parameters ...
> > > 
> > > Thanks.  Those are the low-level primitives, they tell nothing about
> > > the Lisp code which caused this much memory allocation.  We need
> > > higher levels of callstack, and preferably in Lisp terms.  GDB
> > > backtraces would show them, due to tailoring in src/.gdbinit.
> > 
> > Sure, let me pick one for you:
> > 
> > lisp_align_malloc (alloc.c:1195)
> >  Fcons (alloc.c:2694)
> >   concat (fns.c:730)
> >    Fcopy_sequence (fns.c:598)
> >     timer_check (keyboard.c:4395)
> >      wait_reading_process_output (process.c:5334)
> >       sit_for (dispnew.c:6056)
> >        read_char (keyboard.c:2742)
> >         read_key_sequence (keyboard.c:9551)
> >          command_loop_1 (keyboard.c:1354)
> >           internal_condition_case (eval.c:1365)
> >            command_loop_2 (keyboard.c:1095)
> >             internal_catch (eval.c:1126)
> >              command_loop (keyboard.c:1074)
> >               recursive_edit_1 (keyboard.c:718)
> >                Frecursive_edit (keyboard.c:790)
> >                 main (emacs.c:2080)
> >  
> > There is a 171MiB's worth of allocations in that path.
> > 
> > There are a lot of traces ending in wait_reading_process_output that
> > are consuming 50MiB.
> 
> Thanks.  If they are like the one above, the allocations are due to
> some timer.  Could be jabber, I'll take a look at it.  Or maybe
> helm-ff--cache-mode-refresh, whatever that is; need to look at Helm as
> well.

Oops, I got this mixed up: the timer list is from Jean, but the massif
files are from Trevor.

Trevor, can you show the list of timers running on your system?