baffling memory usage

[Tim Redfern]

Hi I'm having an issue that is probably obvious to somebody here but its
baffling me..

I'm using python (2.5.1) on an embedded linux sytem system (kernel
2.6.19 I think) with only 32MB memory (for an art project).

My python code runs nicely when launched manually from a login shell, ps
shows its using 11MB or so of memory.

However, when I try to launch the same code from a startup script, it
uses over 22MB and the system grinds to a halt. Specifically its calling
a speech synthesis program (flite) from the os.system() function, which
requires 4-5MB, and this doesnt work from the startup script.

Why would python use twice as much memory when launched from a startup
script? Could it be related to the use of the os.system() function?

Thanks in advance,

Tim

 

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

My python code runs nicely when launched manually from a login shell, ps
shows its using 11MB or so of memory.

However, when I try to launch the same code from a startup script, it
uses over 22MB and the system grinds to a halt. Specifically its calling
a speech synthesis program (flite) from the os.system() function, which
requires 4-5MB, and this doesnt work from the startup script.

One useful thing to look at might be the /proc/<pid>/maps file (where <pid>
is the process ID). This shows you the memory regions, shared libraries etc
for the specified process. Might give you a clue as to what's different in
the two situations.