Question

I have an issue on our Windows 2003 x64 Build Server when invoking shell commands from a script. Each call causes a “memory leak” in the page file so it grows quite rapidly until it reaches the maximum and the machine stops working.

I can reproduce the problem very nicely by running a perl script like

for ($count=1; $count<5000; $count++)
{
 system "echo huhu";
}

It is independent of the scripting language as the same happens with lua:

for i=1,5000 do
 os.execute("echo huhu")
end

I found somebody describing the same issue with php at

http://www.issociate.de/board/post/454835/Memory_leak_occurs_when_exec%28%29_function_is_used_on_Windows_platform.html

His solution: Firewall/Virus Scanner does not apply, neither are running on the machine.

We can also reproduce the issue on other Developer Machines running XP 64, but not on XP 32 Bit.

I also found an article describing a leak situation in page file at

http://www.programfragment.com/

The guilty guy for the allocation is C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs which runs all the basic Windows services.

Does anybody know the issue and how to resolve it ?

Answer 1

We found the issue by reinstalling a similar step by step. It seemed to be caused by a bug in a hardlock driver. After installing a newer version of the driver the issue disappeared.