drop_caches hangs for 1-2 min and maxes cpu before completing

JK1

5/25/23, 12:15 AM

If I have been logged into the Ubuntu 18.04 graphical console for a while and run either:

echo 2 >| /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
echo 3 >| /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

the process takes almost 2 minutes, whereas it is supposed to be nearly instantaneous. This in turn causes 'logout' to hang for more than a minute. At the same time the CPU pegs at 100%.

This happens even if run the commands repeatedly. However, echoing 1 is almost instantaneous.

If I log out of the graphical console, then dump_cache becomes almost instantaneous. If I log back in to the graphical console, dump_cache starts taking a couple of seconds but over time will revert to 1-2 minutes again -- not sure though what triggers that change.

I don't have anything running in the console itself other than 2 xterm windows and whatever background processes launch automatically with Ubuntu 18.04

More generally, I am not anything other than a few screen sessions, ssh client sessions, and emacs.

Free shows very little memory or cache usage:

              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            39G        4.7G         33G        209M        1.3G         33G
Swap:            0B          0B          0B

Root and system files are stored on SSD so writing cached files should be super-quick.

CPU usage as shown by htop is < 10% on all 4 processors.

Any idea what could be causing this?
And even if the first dump_cache takes a while due to accumulated 'stuff', why would a second dump_cache that follows immediately take the same amount of time?
What could possible be taking almost 2 minutes to dump given that there are <2GB of cache and my disk is a fast Samsung SSD?

0 + 0

cache

18.04

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: drop_caches hangs for 1-2 min and maxes cpu before completing

TH: drop_caches แฮงค์เป็นเวลา 1-2 นาทีและขยาย cpu สูงสุดก่อนที่จะเสร็จสิ้น

RO: drop_caches se blochează timp de 1-2 minute și maxes CPU înainte de finalizare

RU: drop_caches зависает на 1-2 минуты и загружает процессор до завершения

VI: drop_caches bị treo trong 1-2 phút và tăng tối đa cpu trước khi hoàn thành

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