Further work suggests that the type of pdf file might matter, as I have now seen the defunct daemon after
adding the first pdf file in an entry.

However, I have also found that image manipulation (rotation, size) generates a defunct daemon.

> Hi Stefan and Andreas
> 
> Yesterday I reported I had some issues with the latest elog: but now I can reproduce one.  
> elog 2.9.2-a738232
> 
> I started a new entry, and attached three pdf files.  I did not get the problem of not seeing the png thumnbnail
> this time, although that is annoying if you want/need to adjust the thumbnail image before submitting.
> 
> However, if I then look at the running processes, I have the following listed (ps -A)
> 
> 23677 tty1     00:00:04 elogd
> 23809 tty1     00:00:00 elogd <defunct>
> 23825 tty1     00:00:00 elogd <defunct>
> 23847 pts/0    00:00:00 ps
> 
> 23677 was when I started the elogd daemon, having killed off the previous daemon etc for test purposes.
> 
> 23809 and 23825 appeared after a couple of pdfs were added (second and third ones to be precise).  They can only
> be killed off by killing off the original running daemon.  It appears that attaching a second and further pdf
> attachments to any entry generates an elogd <defunct> in the processes list, although attaching a jpg in the
> middle of a list of pdfs didn't (but the next pdf did).  This is happening while adding attachments, that is the
> Submit button has yet to be pressed, so it seems to be generated  when the pdf file is being processed for some
> reason.
> 
> You can end up with quite a stack of these in the process list!
> 
> I never saw this behaviour with the previous version I was running, SVN2475 I think.
> 
> 
> By the way, I still cannot send an attachment over to this server (showing a screenshot) without the 502 error.

I have 4 services running on a Windows Server 2008 R2 machines, 4 separate logs, only one of them is doing this, but that could be because only one of them is trying to delete records once they are posted, I cannot say.

On that one log, everything runs fine until they try to delete a record, and they are doing it under the admin login, but the service hangs.  anyone trying to log in get the 404 error that the page is not available.  to clear it I have to open Manage/Services and then Task Manager.  First I kill the process for that log book, then I can restart the service and everything is back.. trying to stop the service and then start it, or just restart the service, this does no good, in fact, it will hang at stopping the service.. it is not responding at all.  this happened to the same log when I had this on the original Windows Server 2003, so it is not new.. they just don't delete things for a long time, then they seem to do it every week, more than once.. and usually at night or on the weekend. (are they just doing it to mess with me?  Maybe, but I do not think so since it would not get me in trouble if I were busy, out of town or just not home and could not get to it until the next business day and they know this..

Any ideas what could cause this?

My Configuration is as follows, with only the names changed to protect the guilty:

[global]
port = 8081
SSL = 1

css = solar.css
password file = PWFILE
self register = 0
login expiration = 0
restrict edit = 1

Allow Password change = 0
List Menu Commands = New, Find, Select, Config, Help
Menu Commands = List, New, Edit, Delete, Reply, Help
Enable Attachments = 0
show attachments = 0
display mode = summary

admin users = admin,ME
login users = user,ME,user2,user3
deny config = user,ME,user2,user3
deny delete = user,ME,user2,user3
deny edit = user,ME,user2,user3

Welcome Title = <p><font size=6 color=white> S---- T------ Furnace Logs</font><br><font size=3 color=white> These logs are C---------- Confidential: </font> <font size=3 color=55ff55> Green </font>
Attributes = Badge, Run, Recipe, Mod, Rebraze, W.O., Operation, Item, Qty
Options Mod = Boolean
Options Rebraze = Boolean

list display = date, Badge, Run, Recipe, Mod, Rebraze, W.O., Operation, Item, Qty

Options Recipe = AN001, AN002, AN003, AN004
Extendable Options = Recipe
Required Attributes = Badge, Recipe, W.O., Operation, Item, Qty
default encoding = 1
allowed encoding = 1
allow HTML = 0
suppress default = 3
suppress email on edit = 3
display email recipients = 0

[V8]
Theme = default
Comment = V8 Furnace Log Data Owner: B. Sands
Preset Run = V8-%Y-####
Locked Attributes = Run
Page Title = ELOG - $subject
Reverse sort = 1
Quick filter = Date

[V9]
Theme = default
Comment = V9 Furnace Log Data Owner: B. Sands
Preset Run = V9-%Y-####
Locked Attributes = Run
Page Title = ELOG - $subject
Reverse sort = 1
Quick filter = Date

[V10]
Theme = default
Comment = V10 Furnace Log Data Owner: B. Sands
Preset Run = V10-%Y-####
Locked Attributes = Run
Page Title = ELOG - $subject
Reverse sort = 1
Quick filter = Date

[V11]
Theme = default
Comment = V11 Furnace Log Data Owner: B. Sands
Preset Run = V11-%Y-####
Locked Attributes = Run
Page Title = ELOG - $subject
Reverse sort = 1
Quick filter = Date

[V12]
Theme = default
Comment = V12 Furnace Log Data Owner: B. Sands
Preset Run = V12-%Y-####
Locked Attributes = Run
Page Title = ELOG - $subject
Reverse sort = 1
Quick filter = Date

[V13]
Theme = default
Comment = V13 Furnace Log Data Owner: B. Sands
Preset Run = V13-%Y-####
Locked Attributes = Run
Page Title = ELOG - $subject
Reverse sort = 1
Quick filter = Date

[Freezer]
Theme = default
Comment = Freezer Furnace Log Data Owner: B. Sands
Preset Run = Fre-%Y-####
Preset recipe = None
Locked Attributes = Run
Page Title = ELOG - $subject
Reverse sort = 1
Quick filter = Date

[MyTest]
Theme = default
List Menu Commands = New, Find, Select, Config, CSV Import, Help

Comment = MyTest Log
Preset Run = MT-%Y-####
Locked Attributes = Run
Page Title = ELOG - $subject
Reverse sort = 1
Quick filter = Date

I have an attribute formatted as a date (but not labeled as date) and is sorted as second priority. The sort works fine until I enter a date older than Jan 1st 2002. When I do this it is sorted as the latest. Is this a bug or simply not designed to use dates this old?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

 Sorry, my mistake. The cutoff date is anything before September 9th 2001 does not sort.

Also see this in ALPHA at CERN. Eventually there are so many defunct elogd processes that the user runs out of "maxproc" quota and automatic submission 
of elog messages starts to fail. (and the users complain, reboot all computers, etc).

The elogd we use is this:
https://bitbucket.org/ritt/elog/commits/44800a769b99599db7620779e2142b1161c694fc?at=master

The best I can tell, the main elogd is spawning something but does not reap finished subprocesses (wait() syscall). My guess it is spawning ImageMagik stuff 
to create preview images.

K.O.

> Also see this in ALPHA at CERN.
> The elogd we use is this: https://bitbucket.org/ritt/elog/commits/44800a769b99599db7620779e2142b1161c694fc?at=master

Okey, found it. waitpid() in my_shell() is not protected against the periodic alarm signal. (UNIX signals are evil).

In the following log file, notice the entries that have "wait_status" of "-1". Those would have generated zombies ("defunct" processes).

Nov 12 03:43:05 alphacpc05 elogd[4809]: WAITPID pid 4873, wait_status 4873, errno 2 (No such file or directory), status 0, command "convert  
'/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034304_xvthr04.pdf[0-7]' -thumbnail '600' '/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034304_xvthr04-%d.png'"
Nov 12 03:43:05 alphacpc05 elogd[4809]: WAITPID pid 4880, wait_status 4880, errno 2 (No such file or directory), status 0, command "identify -format '%wx%h' 
'/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034304_xvthr04.pdf[0]'"
Nov 12 03:43:19 alphacpc05 elogd[4809]: WAITPID pid 4890, wait_status 4890, errno 2 (No such file or directory), status 0, command "identify -format '%wx%h' 
'/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034304_xvthr04.pdf[0]'"
Nov 12 03:43:19 alphacpc05 elogd[4809]: WAITPID pid 4896, wait_status -1, errno 4 (Interrupted system call), status 0, command "convert  
'/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034318_xvthr05.pdf[0-7]' -thumbnail '600' '/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034318_xvthr05-%d.png'"
Nov 12 03:43:19 alphacpc05 elogd[4809]: WAITPID pid 4896, wait_status 4896, errno 4 (Interrupted system call), status 0, command "convert  
'/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034318_xvthr05.pdf[0-7]' -thumbnail '600' '/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034318_xvthr05-%d.png'"
Nov 12 03:43:20 alphacpc05 elogd[4809]: WAITPID pid 4904, wait_status 4904, errno 4 (Interrupted system call), status 0, command "identify -format '%wx%h' 
'/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034318_xvthr05.pdf[0]'"
Nov 12 03:43:48 alphacpc05 elogd[4809]: WAITPID pid 4922, wait_status 4922, errno 2 (No such file or directory), status 0, command "identify -format '%wx%h' 
'/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034304_xvthr04.pdf[0]'"
Nov 12 03:43:49 alphacpc05 elogd[4809]: WAITPID pid 4929, wait_status -1, errno 4 (Interrupted system call), status 1302603136, command "identify -format '%wx%h' 
'/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034318_xvthr05.pdf[0]'"
Nov 12 03:43:49 alphacpc05 elogd[4809]: WAITPID pid 4929, wait_status 4929, errno 4 (Interrupted system call), status 0, command "identify -format '%wx%h' 
'/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034318_xvthr05.pdf[0]'"
Nov 12 03:43:50 alphacpc05 elogd[4809]: WAITPID pid 4935, wait_status 4935, errno 2 (No such file or directory), status 0, command "convert  
'/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034348_xvthr06.pdf[0-7]' -thumbnail '600' '/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034348_xvthr06-%d.png'"
Nov 12 03:43:50 alphacpc05 elogd[4809]: WAITPID pid 4943, wait_status 4943, errno 2 (No such file or directory), status 0, command "identify -format '%wx%h' 
'/home/alpha/online/elog/logbooks/test/141112_034348_xvthr06.pdf[0]'"

The following code is verified to not generate zombies, please apply it to the master branch of elog:

alphadaq.cern.ch:~/packages/elog> git diff
diff --git a/src/elogd.c b/src/elogd.c
index 277ba30..2d9a848 100755
--- a/src/elogd.c
+++ b/src/elogd.c
@@ -892,14 +892,25 @@ int my_shell(char *cmd, char *result, int size)
 
 #ifdef OS_UNIX
    pid_t child_pid;
-   int fh, status, i;
+   int fh, status, i, wait_status;
    char str[1024];
 
    if ((child_pid = fork()) < 0)
       return 0;
    else if (child_pid > 0) {
       /* parent process waits for child */
-      waitpid(child_pid, &status, 0);
+
+      while (1) {
+         wait_status = waitpid(child_pid, &status, 0);
+
+         sprintf(str, "WAITPID pid %d, wait_status %d, errno %d (%s), status %d, command \"%s\"", child_pid, wait_status, errno, strerror(errno), status, cmd);
+         write_logfile(NULL, str);
+         eprintf("%s", str);
+
+         if (wait_status == -1 && errno == EINTR)
+            continue;
+         break;
+      }
 
       /* read back result */
       memset(result, 0, size);
diff --git a/src/git-revision.h b/src/git-revision.h

K.O.

i have been using elogbook V2.7.6 on my XP machine for a number of years. I ahve recently upgraded to windows 8 and the reply function on my entries has changed. I can now see the previous entrys in HTML format rather than the reply box which used to appear and also my ability to upload attachments and paste working linls is removed. Do i need to upgrade to the latest version and do i ned to back up my previous entries and how do i do this?

Thank you

Upgrading Windows should not change the behavior of ELOG, unless you made a mistake during re-installation of ELOG. Can you post a picture on how your reply looks like, it's hard for me to understand what you write.

/Stefan