Some days, it doesn't pay to upgrade ...

[Tom Samplonius]

----- "Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy at freebsd.org> wrote:
> Feb 27 04:32:49 mars uptimec: The server requested that we do a new
> login
> Feb 27 04:33:00 mars kernel: maxproc limit exceeded by uid 0, please
> see 
> tuning(7) and login.conf(5).
> Feb 27 04:33:10 mars kernel: maxproc limit exceeded by uid 60, please
> see 
> tuning(7) and login.conf(5).
> 
> Stupid question: why isn't there some mechanism that prevents new
> processes 
> from starting up, instead of locking up the whole server?  I'm not
> asking for 
...

  Isn't that what is happening?  When maxproc is hit, new processes can't be created.  It is harmless, except for the uid that exceeded its process limit.

  I think the hang is some side-effect.  Either because init can't fork a process, therefore there is nothing to login to.  Did you try ping the system from remote to really see whether it was a "solid" hang?  Or did you just pound on the keyboard?

  Or it is just a deadlock.  That would be a bug.

Tom