SMF dumping core files in my SMF root dir

[Steve]

How often is Steve's forum experiencing this problem (eg core dumps / day) ?

The problem was the latest version of Auto Embed Video/Audio Clips. Now i use the previous version in order to avoid the problem. The question is what causes this problem.....it appears only to some servers.

[Jason]

Thanks - none of those times match anything from my SMF error log.  Is the numerical suffix on those files the PID of the php interpreter?  Or?

I'd put my money on the PID but I haven't found a definite answer (yet) for that online.  But that seems like the logical choice I'd say.

Done, the details are in your email

Got it -- I'll make a test post a little later today (it will be in a foreign language) to see if it creates a dump file.  If that user doesn't have access to delete, I will let you know so you can delete it afterwards.

Either way, the next step would be to either downgrade that mod (per Steve's post) or remove it temporarily to see if the dumps cease.  Given that he was able to reproduce these on this server with that mod and a few other people (outside of Charlottezweb) have seen the same thing, the next version may address it.

[Jason]

I made a post on your "Anything you like" board (which I left for now so you could see it).

It was a test Steve found from his troubleshooting.  Sure enough, it immediately created a core dump when I posted it.

I renamed all your core files to CZWcore so I could see what was there when I started/finished.

The core.20612 is the new one created by me.  You can delete them all now if you want.

Steve -- what does that quote contain or do you think it's the conflict of that language set?

Was this shared with karlbenson?

[Steve]

I gave it to Karl but he couldn't reproduce the error.

The text is nothing special, i spent many hours to find what character/s are causing the error with no success. Actually i can't understand why this happens only when the text is quoted.

Do you have any security_mod in your server?

[Jason]

We have quite a number of security tweaks in place but they should be universal across our servers.  It's odd this isn't impacting the other one I've tried so far.

[Steve]

I think that the core files of Bootleg' forums are creating with the same way. Some of his members are quoting texts that create core files. My first thought in regards to the problem was the Zend Optimizer.

I have another two texts that create a similar problem.

Now i don't use the latest update of the mod and everything is ok. Very satisfied and my forum is extremely fast.

Thanks for all Jason.

[Bootleg]

Thanks Jason and Steve for your effort to help with this.  I have not yet reverted to a older version of the embed video mod.

Jason, I have just now made the same post as you did and my post did not produce a core file.  Would you expect that post's content to cause a core dump every time?

[Jason]

Was the code in a quote like mine?

[Bootleg]

Was the code in a quote like mine?

Yes, I made two posts 100% identical to yours (in the thread you created), and then repeated the experiment in a new thread created for this purpose - no core file was produced.

[Steve]

First QUOTE the text and then POST it.

[Jason]

Was the code in a quote like mine?

Yes, I made two posts 100% identical to yours (in the thread you created), and then repeated the experiment in a new thread created for this purpose - no core file was produced.

Want me to try it again?

You may want to try to modify my original post, copy all the code in that thread, and post it in a new post.  I did a preview then post though I don't know if that matters.

[Steve]

If bootleg's forum is not big, he can search the quoted messages during the day that the core files appeared in order to confirm the error.

[Bootleg]

Was the code in a quote like mine?

Yes, I made two posts 100% identical to yours (in the thread you created), and then repeated the experiment in a new thread created for this purpose - no core file was produced.

Want me to try it again?

You may want to try to modify my original post, copy all the code in that thread, and post it in a new post.  I did a preview then post though I don't know if that matters.

Hi Jason, yes please.

I'll un-hide the original thread you created, and the ones I created too (if only for you to check what I was doing.)

I did not preview my test posts before submitting them.

[Jason]

I took the original post and hit quote.  I then removed everything so it was just the quote tag followed by the text, followed by the end-quote.

I hit preview, then I posted.

It created core.13403 which I left there to show you.

[Steve]

From the SimpleMachines SMF Forum - Only for Charter Members. Karl is the author of the mod.

karlbenson
Customizer
Simple Machines Super Hero

Re: Auto Embed Video/Audio Clips v3.1.2 (AEVAC Mod)
« Reply #1637 on: Today at 12:41:01 AM »
   
Reply with quoteQuote
Sorry for the lack of an update.

Currently I am aware of 4 users who are having .core files created with PHP 5.2.6

I've been unable to replicate it myself, nor find the exact cause, I have been working on a new version from scratch which I hope will resolve the issue.  (I've had suggested it that it might be a bug in 5.2.6 and preg_replace_callback which this functions uses alot.)

During the update I will of course go through every post since i released v3.1.2.
One thing I have been doing is going through all existing sites, and re-checking them. Unfortunately quite alot seem to have changed. (BBC Iplayer support looks like it will have to be dropped since they changedtheir player to something i can't embed at the moment).

I don't want to give more details until its nearer ready. But it should be worth waiting for.
I don't have a time frame at the moment either.  Once I've got it ready I want to do alot of testing / benchmarking against the current version to see how it performs.