# Workling's spiraling memory usage

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/worklings-spiraling-memory-usage/172816>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 28, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/worklings-spiraling-memory-usage/172816 "2009-07-28T15:29:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zaczheng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/edb3f5/32.png) [@zaczheng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zaczheng)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/worklings-spiraling-memory-usage/172816/1 "2009-07-28T15:29:09Z")

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First of all, much thanks to Workling and Starling’s creators. They are  
great pieces of software.

I have started to use Workling/Starling to process fairly big amounts of  
data, importing 2000+ records of 20+ fields each. It ran great  
initially, then it halted my 500M slice. After investigating Workling  
was gobbing up memory like there’s no tomorrow.

Workling starts off using 170M of RAM, but when it is used, it increases  
memory usage continuously, reaching 900M on my 500M slice. Then the  
server hangs due to heavy swapping.

I have tried to look into the issue, from memcache client options to  
trying to flush Starling’s cache. Although thinking about it that’s to  
do with Starling, not Workling where the real issue lies.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Does anyone know of a fix?

Is Workling leaking memory or is it Rails?

Much thanks in advance.

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**Author:** ![zaczheng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/edb3f5/32.png) [@zaczheng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zaczheng)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 4:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/worklings-spiraling-memory-usage/172816/2 "2009-08-12T16:55:07Z")

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Hey Zac, I’m having this problem too. I have 3 worklings which start  
at about 50MB and have each grown to about 170MB, which eventually  
push into swap. I’m also looking for a fix.

On Jul 28, 9:29 am, Zac Z. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

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**Author:** ![zaczheng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/edb3f5/32.png) [@zaczheng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zaczheng)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 11:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/worklings-spiraling-memory-usage/172816/3 "2009-08-14T11:38:08Z")

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IdeaOfOrder wrote:

> Hey Zac, I’m having this problem too. I have 3 worklings which start  
> at about 50MB and have each grown to about 170MB, which eventually  
> push into swap. I’m also looking for a fix.

My Workling is no longer leaking memory. I think it got fixed when I  
upgraded Rails. I also upgraded all gems, so that might have been it  
too.

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**Author:** ![zaczheng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/edb3f5/32.png) [@zaczheng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zaczheng)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/worklings-spiraling-memory-usage/172816/4 "2009-08-25T23:58:34Z")

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I’m using the latest version of all gems (Rails 2.3.3.1, etc.) and  
still seem to find my workling workers going from 70MB =\> 230MB about  
once or twice a day. I have god.rb setup to restart workling when it  
goes over 200MB, but something must be wrong… I can’t figure out a  
good way to investigate either… any help much appreciated!

Thanks!  
Aaron

On Aug 14, 5:38 am, Zac Z. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)