Bug 389299

Summary:	Memory Leak when using the search function
Product:	[Frameworks and Libraries] frameworks-baloo	Reporter:	kbrea
Component:	Baloo File Daemon	Assignee:	Pinak Ahuja <pinak.ahuja>
Status:	RESOLVED NOT A BUG
Severity:	major	CC:	nate, plasma-bugs-null, stefan.bruens
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	5.42.0
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Manjaro
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description kbrea 2018-01-21 23:22:54 UTC

When opening Kickoff and typing to search or pressing Alt+F2 and searching something, a process called baloorunner is created (the search process, I guess) and instantly takes up 256 GiB of memory, leading to a crash in the plasmashell and a general slow down of the whole operating system due to the lack of free memory until it is killed manually. Sometimes there also is a second process called baloofile.

I know this isn't really a plasmashell bug, but I don't know where to put this bug report. Also, I can provide additional information, but I don't know how to gather it. This bug has been there for a few versions and is getting progressively worse. It also affects Dolphin in that it occurs often when there are open Dolphin windows when restoring the computer from hibernation. If the memory leak occurs in Dolphin, Dolphin itself also takes up 256 GiB of memory.

Comment 1 Stefan Brüns 2018-03-18 17:50:24 UTC

Your analysis is wrong:

Although baloorunner reserves a memory window of 256 GByte, it does not actually use this amount of memory in terms of physical memory.

The window is used to be able to map its database file, even when this database grows beyond its initial size.

As baloofile uses the same database, and also has to map it to write updates, the same applies to baloofile.

Whatever is crashing you computer/desktop, its not this memory reservation.

It may be a database corruption (happens more frequently when users just kill processes while these are active), try renaming/deleting the baloo database.

Comment 2 Christoph Feck 2018-03-30 14:39:38 UTC

Stefan, if you need information from the reporter, you should clarify which :)