is tcmalloc: large alloc a warning or error in Python

Question

I found sometimes I got this error, but I see the python program is stilling running (not get terminated), wondering if it is just a warning or an error? I have searched for similar discussion, but not found a definite answer.

tcmalloc: large alloc (bytes, result) = 1073750016 0x7f8a3fc00000 @ 0x55aefbc75b29 0x55aefbc74bbb 0x55aefc178c65 0x7f8bf019d86d 0x7f8bf019f908 0x7f8bf019cac8 0x 0x 0x 0x

Answer 1

As per https://www.novell.com/support/kb/doc.php?id=7012805

"This message isn't really an error per se, it's more just informational.

There is an environmental variable, TCMALLOC_LARGE_ALLOC_REPORT_THRESHOLD, which by default is set to 1073741824 bytes. ~1GB So if there is an allocation that is == or exceeds 1GB of memory, this message will be displayed in the ndsd.log.

If there is a great deal of memory in the server, such as greater than 8G - 32GB and/or a fairly large eDirectory database you may see this message more readily. You can just modify the threshold to be greater than the typical alloc that your seeing in the ndsd.log."

I'm not sure this is specifically correct given I'm unaware of the environment you're using, I'd say the explanation can be generalized as a warning that 1GB of memory has been allocated by the running application.

Further info: https://github.com/gperftools/gperftools/issues/360

Edit: As per the OPS comments, it appears that the same error was produced when allocating 1gb and 21gb so it would be safe to assume that there is a programmatic error that is using all available memory, I would go back and review the code.