mollases mode

[Rich Mooney]

> Has anyone seen MC switching into a "mollases" mode? I have seen that
> several times and attributed it to other factors, but I just had it
> occuring in rather pure conditions, so I am now quite certain that it
> is MC itself.
>
> When it gets into this modus, MC is so slow to respond to appleevents
> (we are talking Mac OS here) that most of them time out. I can click
> to switch to Finder or other app (it takes a while but eventually
> happens) and other apps are working fine. In this modus, MC takes a
> very long time before it decides to redraw windows. It does not
> respond to mouse clicks or command keys. Sending "quit" appleevent
> produces an error that applescript dictionary is not available.
>
> Memory does not seem to be a factor. At least there is plenty of free
> memory in the system and the utilization bar as shown by finder
> indicates that MC has plenty of heap space.
>
> A common factor in each case is that it has been running as cgi for a
> couple days. (Yes, it switches into this modus with no user present
> at the keyboard.) Same thing for 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 under OS either 8.6
> or 9.2.2.

I had a similar problem on windows.  I had an application which had to run
24/7 and which would slow down after a couple of days.  I was storing all
communication in and out in a field which was supposed to be truncated to
200 lines but, the truncation code didn't work right.  This meant that the
field just kept growing.  I also noticed that my memory usage hadn't
increased dramatically but my processor usage did go high.  Basically, check
to see if you have a field or a variable which is being allowed to grow
infinitely.  Since it's a CGI, I suspect you're doing some logging

Rich Mooney
Payne Sparkman Mfg.