Re: [Pan-users] Pan has 8 Processes, using 1436MB! That's eating my RAM!

[Dr. Adrian Wrigley]

Dave Hill wrote:
...
> >         libXft.so.2 => /usr/lib/libXft.so.2 (0x4066b000)
...
> Ah, this looks like the separate Xft package. Make sure you have the
> latest library as there was a major leak that certainly affected RH8 systems.
> I had to install Xft 2.0-4 to fix that.

This is it!

I had first seen leaks in some Gtk code I wrote, then found pan leaking
like a sieve.  It had put my ("mission critical") system on the edge of 
collapse.

The people on the Gtk list didn't mention this issue (and Gtk/Glib doesn't 
leak(!))
Once you're up to 35 dynamic libraries, it's a real nuisance tracking down these
issues.  Valgrind might have caught it, but needs skill to use well.

The full explanation is on the RedHat site:
https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2002-305.html

The leak was triggered because I was using VNC, which lacks the X RENDER 
extension.
This explains how other users hadn't seen this problem.

Thank you Dave for helping solve this mystery!
--
Adrian