[HADOOP-3381] INode interlinks can multiply effect of memory leaks

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 0.16.0
• Fix Version/s: 0.18.0
• Hadoop Flags: Reviewed
• Assignee: Raghu Angadi
• Reporter: Raghu Angadi
• Created: 13/May/08 18:29
• Updated: 08/Jul/09 16:43
• Resolved: 21/May/08 20:52

Description

Say a directory 'DIR' has a directory tree under it with 10000 files and directories. Each INode keeps refs to parent and children. When DIR is deleted, memory wise we essentially delete link from its parent (and delete the all the blocks from blocksMap). We don't modify its children. This is ok since this will form an island of references and will be gc-ed. Thats when everything is perfect. But if there is a bug that leaves a ref from a valid object (there is a suspect, I will another jira) to even one of these 10000 files, it could hold up all the INode and related objects. This can make a smaller mem leak many times more severe.