I'm getting reports on rationalwiki.org of occasional blank watchlists. The symptoms are that a completely empty page loads immediately. It's running 1.19.1 in Ubuntu 10.04 with Apache 2.2.14-ubuntu.
Of course, I changed *two* things last night: (a) cut max memory for PHP from 256MB to 64MB (b) switched off KeepAlive in Apache. (I'm quite keen to keep both of these, as the server CPU and memory went *right* down.)
The confusing thing is the Apache logs don't show any "200 0" for Special:Watchlist, at all. So either it's serving something that renders as a blank page, or something before Apache, which should be nothing whatsoever, is showing a blank page. I see a few "200 0" for other pages. A bit over 1% of all connections give a 408 request timeout - but the request timeout is 300 seconds, which is quite huge enough.
I've asked people having the problem to email me with their IP and the time, so I can go log-grovelling. But has anyone else seen this, and what caused it?
- d.
By "empty page" I assume you mean a completely white/empty page that you get when the MediaWiki crashes/breaks? You should get an entry in the Apache error log (different from the access log) when this happens. If you aren't you may wish to check the "error_reporting" in php.ini to ensure it is set to an appropriate level. I have mine set at E_ALL which can result in large logs over time but it does catch a variety of minor warnings which are sometimes useful in diagnosing other related problems. If you change this setting make sure you restart Apache to apply the settings.
On 13 October 2012 09:35, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
I'm getting reports on rationalwiki.org of occasional blank watchlists. The symptoms are that a completely empty page loads immediately. It's running 1.19.1 in Ubuntu 10.04 with Apache 2.2.14-ubuntu.
Of course, I changed *two* things last night: (a) cut max memory for PHP from 256MB to 64MB (b) switched off KeepAlive in Apache. (I'm quite keen to keep both of these, as the server CPU and memory went *right* down.)
The confusing thing is the Apache logs don't show any "200 0" for Special:Watchlist, at all. So either it's serving something that renders as a blank page, or something before Apache, which should be nothing whatsoever, is showing a blank page. I see a few "200 0" for other pages. A bit over 1% of all connections give a 408 request timeout - but the request timeout is 300 seconds, which is quite huge enough.
I've asked people having the problem to email me with their IP and the time, so I can go log-grovelling. But has anyone else seen this, and what caused it?
- d.
MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
On 13 October 2012 15:24, Dave Humphrey dave@uesp.net wrote:
On 13 October 2012 09:35, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
I'm getting reports on rationalwiki.org of occasional blank watchlists. The symptoms are that a completely empty page loads immediately. It's running 1.19.1 in Ubuntu 10.04 with Apache 2.2.14-ubuntu. The confusing thing is the Apache logs don't show any "200 0" for Special:Watchlist, at all. So either it's serving something that renders as a blank page, or something before Apache, which should be nothing whatsoever, is showing a blank page. I see a few "200 0" for other pages. A bit over 1% of all connections give a 408 request timeout - but the request timeout is 300 seconds, which is quite huge enough.
By "empty page" I assume you mean a completely white/empty page that you get when the MediaWiki crashes/breaks? You should get an entry in the Apache error log (different from the access log) when this happens. If you aren't you may wish to check the "error_reporting" in php.ini to ensure it is set to an appropriate level. I have mine set at E_ALL which can result in large logs over time but it does catch a variety of minor warnings which are sometimes useful in diagnosing other related problems. If you change this setting make sure you restart Apache to apply the settings.
It shows up in the access log as a 500, e.g.
[IP number] - - [13/Oct/2012:08:59:18 -0400] "GET /wiki/Special:Watchlist HTTP/1.1" 500 308 "http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/RationalWiki:Technical_support" "[browser agent string]"
- that apparently renders blank. This doesn't show anything in the Apache or PHP error log around this time either. Most frustrating ... I've turned up the logging a bit.
- d.
On 13 October 2012 18:43, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
I'm getting reports on rationalwiki.org of occasional blank watchlists. The symptoms are that a completely empty page loads
Here's the on-wiki discussion: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/RationalWiki:Technical_support#Blank_watchlist
- d.
You might check the size of their watch lists too
On Saturday, October 13, 2012, David Gerard wrote:
On 13 October 2012 18:43, David Gerard <dgerard@gmail.com javascript:;> wrote:
I'm getting reports on rationalwiki.org of occasional blank watchlists. The symptoms are that a completely empty page loads
Here's the on-wiki discussion: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/RationalWiki:Technical_support#Blank_watchlist
- d.
MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org javascript:; https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
On 13 October 2012 14:35, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
I'm getting reports on rationalwiki.org of occasional blank watchlists. The symptoms are that a completely empty page loads immediately. It's running 1.19.1 in Ubuntu 10.04 with Apache 2.2.14-ubuntu. Of course, I changed *two* things last night: (a) cut max memory for PHP from 256MB to 64MB (b) switched off KeepAlive in Apache. (I'm quite keen to keep both of these, as the server CPU and memory went *right* down.)
SOLVED - by upping max memory from 64MB to 96MB. Dunno what was breaking, but the users with the problem are reporting they can get a watchlist now.
(Tangentially, I see a pile of PHP errors concerning LiquidThreads running out of memory, and we still use the awful thing. Even though I'd happily set it on fire. Is it known to be pretty fat with memory?)
- d.
On Sat, Oct 13, 2012 at 5:39 PM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 13 October 2012 14:35, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
I'm getting reports on rationalwiki.org of occasional blank watchlists. The symptoms are that a completely empty page loads immediately. It's running 1.19.1 in Ubuntu 10.04 with Apache 2.2.14-ubuntu. Of course, I changed *two* things last night: (a) cut max memory for PHP from 256MB to 64MB (b) switched off KeepAlive in Apache. (I'm quite keen to keep both of these, as the server CPU and memory went *right* down.)
SOLVED - by upping max memory from 64MB to 96MB. Dunno what was breaking, but the users with the problem are reporting they can get a watchlist now.
Indeed. You're probably fixing some other bugs as well by upping that limit. Really, PHP should have about 100M of memory available to it to run MediaWiki. We're a memory hog, but hey, them's the breaks.
(Tangentially, I see a pile of PHP errors concerning LiquidThreads running out of memory, and we still use the awful thing. Even though I'd happily set it on fire. Is it known to be pretty fat with memory?)
I don't know of any specific complaints about LQT w.r.t memory, but generally speaking, more extensions -> more memory needed.
-Chad
On 14 October 2012 23:49, Chad innocentkiller@gmail.com wrote:
Indeed. You're probably fixing some other bugs as well by upping that limit. Really, PHP should have about 100M of memory available to it to run MediaWiki. We're a memory hog, but hey, them's the breaks.
AAAAAAAA yeah, fair enough.
I don't know of any specific complaints about LQT w.r.t memory, but generally speaking, more extensions -> more memory needed.
We do indeed have a buttload of extensions. LQT is being a bit broken, but I'll probably thump that this evening.
- d.
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