can't start new thread

[jdonnell]

I posted this about a month ago and peter asked for a stack trace. I
didn't get the error again until yesterday and here is the stack trace
and what I posted before.

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./ab.py", line 240, in ?
main()
File "./ab.py", line 217, in main
abThread.start()
File "/usr/lib/python2.2/threading.py", line 396, in
start
_start_new_thread(self.__bootstrap, ())
thread.error: can't start new thread


I'm at a loss on this one. I have a multithreaded script that gets
'thread.error: can't start new thread' errors randomly. I
just got it right after starting the script when it was trying to
create the 5th thread. Usually the script will run for a while before
throwing this error, but sometimes it throws it right away.

This script has worked without a problem for months, but I did make
some changes recently. I don't see how those changes would cause
this error though. It's also on a VPS so it's possible that they
changed something in the OS. Does anyone have any suggestions about
possible causes of this error?

I'm using Python 2.2.3 on a custom vps version of FC1.

 

[Paul Rubin]

This script has worked without a problem for months, but I did make
some changes recently. I don't see how those changes would cause
this error though. It's also on a VPS so it's possible that they
changed something in the OS. Does anyone have any suggestions about
possible causes of this error?

Maybe some other VPS(s) under the host OS have spun enough processes
or threads to make the host OS exhaust some limit.

 

[jdonnell]

Maybe some other VPS(s) under the host OS have spun enough processes

or threads to make the host OS exhaust some limit.

I'm not familiar with any hard limits in linux. Is there a config file
with these settings?

 

[Terry Reedy]

I'm using Python 2.2.3 on a custom vps version of FC1.

I am pretty sure there have been thread-related bug fixes since then.
Trying the latest release (even if you can't use it for production) might
give you some idea of the source of the failure (Python versus your OS).

Terry J. Reedy