>Number:         8503
>Category:       bin
>Synopsis:       ksh on vax leaks memory
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    bin-bug-people (Utility Bug People)
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Mon Sep 27 20:20:01 1999
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Matthias Buelow
>Organization:

>Release:        NetBSD 1.4.1
>Environment:
	
System: NetBSD moghedien.mayn.de 1.4.1 NetBSD 1.4.1 (GENERIC) #13: Fri Aug 13 05:35:08 PDT 1999 root@futplex:/usr/src/sys/arch/vax/compile/GENERIC vax


>Description:
On the VAX port, /bin/ksh (pdksh 5.2.12) leaks quite some memory.
This can be observed very easily by repeatedly typing "ps ux" into
a started ksh prompt.  Here, ksh leaks ~24-28K each time.
This doesn't seem to happen with /bin/ksh on 1.4/i386.
Here is an example:

$ ps ux|grep ksh|grep -v grep
mkb      20979  1.2  1.1   308  256 p1  S     5:09AM    0:00.35 ksh
$ r
ps ux|grep ksh|grep -v grep
mkb      20979  1.5  1.2   308  288 p1  S     5:09AM    0:00.44 ksh
$ r
ps ux|grep ksh|grep -v grep
mkb      20979  2.0  1.3   308  316 p1  S     5:09AM    0:00.52 ksh
$ r
ps ux|grep ksh|grep -v grep
mkb      20979  1.4  1.4   308  340 p1  S     5:09AM    0:00.61 ksh
[...]

Since this doesn't happen with other programs it looks like the
problem is with the shell, not with ps or something.

>How-To-Repeat:
Execute commands interactively, watch rss with ps.
>Fix:
Don't use ksh on vax or maybe upgrade to a newer version of pdksh
(5.2.12 is ancient).
Haven't tested if a newer version still exhibits this problem.
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: