[tie]

The update process has taken over my CPU, using upwards of 50% of my CPU. All it is doing is writing, millions of times over and over in system.log:

Oct 17 11:35:06 PB kernel[0]: hotfiles_evict: err 28 relocating file 19059
Oct 17 11:35:06 PB kernel[0]: hotfiles_evict: err 28 relocating file 19059
Oct 17 11:35:06 PB kernel[0]: hotfiles_evict: err 28 relocating file 19059
Oct 17 11:35:06 PB kernel[0]: hotfiles_evict: err 28 relocating file 19059
Oct 17 11:35:06 PB kernel[0]: hotfiles_evict: err 28 relocating file 19059
Oct 17 11:35:06 PB kernel[0]: hotfiles_evict: err 28 relocating file 19059
...

The process is owned by root, I can't seem to quit the process in Activity Monitor even with force quit (and I've tried some of the different variants of kill in the terminal, using sudo for root access).

This has happened once before (with a different file number I am fairly sure), and the only way to stop it was to remove power from the computer. The computer would not restart or shut down because the update process refused to quit. I haven't tried restarting or shutting down this time because I don't want to quit open applications, but I bet it still wouldn't work.

I am running OS 10.4 on a Powerbook G4 12". I also tried renicing the process, but it didn't seem to have any effect on CPU usage (although I'm not 100% sure of the renice command syntax, I think I used it correctly). Has anyone seen this? Is there any other way of killing the update process?

[Edit: It adds about a megabyte of lines like the above every three minutes. I've tried sending all the different signals from Activity Monitor, and not had any effect I could tell.]

[tie]

Okay, everything has beachballed now (I'm posting from a Windows machine). There goes all my work.

The problem with MacOS is that it gives the illusion of stability, so you think you can trust it -- but then when it breaks you lose that much more (in this case, tons). (Actually, this happened last time almost exactly two weeks ago, so it seems to be less stable than Windows, but I guess I've fallen for the propaganda.) </bitterness>

Oh well. I'll let it run a few more minutes before hard restarting just in case, then update to 10.4.2. I'd been avoiding this because I'd read of an incompatibility with a program I needed.

[fisherKing]

easy.
do an archive and install...
boot from the cd, choose that option.
the system will be replaced, but your home folder (docs, music, pics, prefs etc) will be intact.


what update were you doing, btw?

[tie]

I wasn't doing any update. The "update" process just seems to start up automatically occasionally. I have no idea what this process actually does, and am not sure that it actually has anything to do with software updates.

Anyway, I hard restarted and updated from 10.4.1 to 10.4.2; hopefully this bug has been fixed. I have just turned off the "check for software updates" in System Preferences just in case that setting is related to the update process.

Or are you saying that my system file is corrupt and I need to delete it and start afresh?

[Edit: Actually, the update process seems to be running all the time. It is running right now, for example, but only using between 0.00 and 0.60 % CPU. I think it is probably unrelated to Software Update.]

[fisherKing]

a few things.
back up your stuff!

if the problem comes up again, it might be a good idea to do that archive & install.
you'll keeo your stuff, and replace what may be a damaged system.

when you say the "update process", what do you see? is this only info in activity monitor, or is something else happening??

[tie]

Copy-pasted from top:

Code:
  PID COMMAND      %CPU   TIME   #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT  RSHRD  RSIZE  VSIZE
...
84 update       0.0%  0:13.80   1    14    18   124K   304K   768K  26.6M
...

Inspecting the process in Activity Monitor, it just says that the parent process is launchd (1), and the process group ID is wheel (0), with a few more details about threads (1), ports (14), and so on.

Aha!

Code:
man update

UPDATE(8)                 BSD System Manager's Manual                UPDATE(8)

NAME
     update -- flush internal filesystem caches to disk frequently

SYNOPSIS
     update [normal_interval [save_energy_interval]]

DESCRIPTION
     The update command helps protect the integrity of disk volumes by flush-
     ing volatile cached filesystem data to disk at thirty second intervals.
     Update uses the sync(2) function call to do the task.  The normal_inter-
     val and save_energy_interval can be used to set the sync(2) interval in
     seconds of the normal case and the case where the computer is trying to
     save energy.

     Update is commonly invoked at startup time by rc(8) when the system goes
     multi-user.

SEE ALSO
     sync(2), fsck(8), init(8), rc(8), sync(8)

BUGS
     It is possible on some systems that a sync occurring simultaneously with
     a crash may cause file system damage. See fsck(8).

HISTORY
     An update command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

BSD                             April 19, 1994                             BSD
~
~

Perhaps this is indicating a filesystem bug. I will only reinstall the system as a last resort (never done that in my life, even on Windows), but I will backup things. Actually, archive and install doesn't sound so hard, though. Thanks.