<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 12:25 PM, Gary Buhrmaster <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gary.buhrmaster@gmail.com" target="_blank">gary.buhrmaster@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 2:36 PM, George Galt <<a href="mailto:george.galt@gmail.com">george.galt@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
....<br>
<div class="im">> In defense of process monitors, I run one not because myth is unreliable,<br>
> but because it is so reliable that it may take several days or more before I<br>
> notice it isn't running -- by which time I've missed a few of my wife's<br>
> favorite programs. Since I don't watch TV every night (or sometimes for<br>
> more than a week, even when home), I can't otherwise monitor the system. Do<br>
> you have any other suggestions if a process monitor isn't the preferred<br>
> strategy?<br>
<br>
</div>Monitoring is not (itself) a bad thing. However, what you do about<br>
a failure detection is important. I know the common "Windows user"<br>
approach is to reboot, and hope the problem goes away. It might<br>
(especially with commodity hardware that occasionally just<br>
fails in unusual ways) but you have not addressed the root cause.<br>
The reality is that MythTV has bugs(*). To improve MythTV, there<br>
needs to be reliable and useful (and hopefully repeatable) reports<br>
of problems.<br>
<br>
So, rather than just restarting your current release(**) MythTV,<br>
why not have your monitoring system perform the appropriate<br>
debugging steps as as documented at <a href="http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Debugging" target="_blank">http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Debugging</a><br>
so that bugs can be reported, and fixed? Note that for the<br>
backtrace to be really useful, you will need to install the debug<br>
symbols. Except in the most extremely storage constrained<br>
system, installing the debug symbols is a no-brainer. Just<br>
install them, and have your package system maintain them<br>
as you upgrade so you will have them when you need them.<br>
<br>
Gary<br>
<br>
(*) There have been great strides over the last few development<br>
cycles to eliminate deadlocks and to deal with potential errors<br>
detected by static analysis, along with the usual bug fixes. But<br>
there is always more to do, and MythTV is a very complex piece<br>
of software, not all code paths have been extensively tested.<br>
And any complex piece of code has bugs.<br>
<br>
(**) If you are running older releases, first move to the current<br>
release. As stated above, many fixes go in at each release,<br>
and the devs do not have the resources to deal with bugs that<br>
have already been fixed in later releases.<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">Gary:<br><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">You are right, of course. I'll look into installing the debugging symbols and getting the proper information. Normally, I have no issues with myth failing, but I have had an intermittent problem with it crashing that is associated with one particular program (the Graham Norton Show on BBC America, recorded through an HD-PVR). I'll see if I can get a proper backtrace for that issue and submit it.<br>
<br></div><div class="gmail_extra">Thanks,<br><br>George<br></div></div>