Bug #80108 [Opn]: APACHE+PHP not releasing memory in certain conditions on Win10

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=80108&edit=1 ID: 80108 Updated by: sjon@php.net Reported by: gilperon at gmail dot com -Summary: Major bug on APACHE+PHP not releasing memory in certain conditions on Win10 +Summary: APACHE+PHP not releasing memory in certain conditions on Win10 Status: Open Type: Bug Package: *General Issues -Operating System: WINDOWS 10 AND CENTOS 8 +Operating System: windows 10 PHP Version: 7.4.10 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: > I know how memory leak works, how memory management works, variable lifecycle, stacks... So I > came up with the minimum code to show you this bug. > I am pretty sure PHP is doing something weird on the background which is not cleaning cache or > any memory assigned location. that's pretty awesome, you have a reproducible issue and the knowledge to fix it! :) In case you haven't noticed yet, we are an open-source project and the full sourcecode can be found here: https://github.com/php/php-src/tree/php-7.4.10/sapi/apache2handler If the votes are any indication, there are more people experiencing this issue; meaning you can help fix this issue for others as well. We welcome your pull-request! Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2020-09-15 22:33:09] gilperon at gmail dot com Description: ------------ I am running latest APACHE (2.5.x) + PHP (7.x) on my Win10 computer which has 8GB of RAM. All configurations are default. When I start my Apache and check Windows Task Manager it shows the two Apache processes are using about 5 to 6 MB of RAM. Great. Now I saved the code below on a test.php file and execute it using my browser like this http://localhost/test.php The contents of that file is pretty simple, just this: <?php set_time_limit(0); ini_set("memory_limit","-1"); $temp = str_repeat("ffkl2kfj\nflkdsjf \rflksdjfldskjLJFDSL djsk|fhgjk{}fkgkjfdk",10000000); explode("|",$temp); echo "ended"; ?> After executing the code above and waiting till it shows ended, one of my Apache processes shows 400MB of RAM being consumed (the other Apache process is with 5-6MB of RAM). If I execute that code again, Apache will consume 700MB. Then again, it will show 850MB and so on. That's the bug itself. I know how memory leak works, how memory management works, variable lifecycle, stacks... So I came up with the minimum code to show you this bug. NOW what is impressive, if that if after you call a few times the file test.php on your browser, if you create another file named test2.php with the contents being only <?php echo "x"; ?>, and if you execute that same file using your browser, you will see Apache memory usage drops to exactly HALF! Now execute it again, Apache`s consumed RAM will drop again exactly by 50%... and so on. Keep doing this until it reaches 5-6MB and it will stop dropping. What is going on? This is a big problem to me and the only "escape" is creating scheduled task to restart Apache every 12 hours. I need to fix this cause in this computer I run a small webservice to a few friends and every once in a while Apache reaches almost 100% of memory usage and I need to restart it manually, even this webservice receiving no more than 10 or 20 requests a day. For some reason, Apache is not completely cleaning its memory after each request. I know I should be using a linux distro (like Centos 8.x that I run on a VPS) if I want to run a realiable LAMP stack, but this bug is still pretty weird. I am pretty sure PHP is doing something weird on the background which is not cleaning cache or any memory assigned location. Test script: --------------- <?php set_time_limit(0); ini_set("memory_limit","-1"); $temp = str_repeat("ffkl2kfj\nflkdsjf \rflksdjfldskjLJFDSL djsk|fhgjk{}fkgkjfdk",10000000); explode("|",$temp); echo "ended"; ?> Expected result: ---------------- Memory should be released as soon the request was finished. Actual result: -------------- Memory is not being cleaned. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=80108&edit=1