On 05/11/04, Jan Harkes <jaharkes_at_cs.cmu.edu> wrote: 

> This is strange, the reference counts (refs) are tracking the internal
> references [readers writers refcnt] and the open counts (openers) are
> trying to follow the kernel references [reading writing executing]. It
> seems strange that we have a readers refcount, but no filehandles open
> for reading. I'll have to check the source to see where these counters
> are manipulated.

strange indeed.

i think i may have finally tracked down what may be causing the problem.

i noticed that i hadn't seen this type of crash until around the same time
that we launched a new feature that relied on imagemagick. (imagemagick
is a commonly used set of command line tools that converts and manipulates
images to different formats and sizes.)

the crashes seem to take place after convert (part of imagemagick) does
its work, and venus completes a reintegration of the files. unfortunately,
it's not consistent. perhaps convert is writing the file out in an
unpleasant way, and venus is reintegrating before the file is actually
ready. (?)

so now i have convert writing the file to /tmp, and then i'm renaming
the file into coda. since making this change to our web application a
few days ago, i haven't had a single crash. (still crossing my
fingers!)

-- 

steve simitzis : /sim' - i - jees/
          pala : saturn5 productions
 www.steve.org : 415.282.9979
  hath the daemon spawn no fire?