SpellingCow.com

tinytim · Joined: 30 Jan 2005 Posts: 2

Hi

I tried the spell checker with a big text input, 70KBytes of all the same 'word' and it killed your server! I think you should check the length of the spelling request and limit it before trying to process it, as your spell checking software can not handle that big of a request! This is a known problem with both Aspell and Ispell.

I do understand that a web based spell checker is not made for doing large spell check requests, but that is not my point in posting this! My point is, your service can be killed by anyone, which is the point!

Again I am sorry for trying that test, but maybe it will help you fix it so others can not do the same thing again!

Tiny

nuttzy99 · Site Admin Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 1068

First of all, thanks for reporting this, as it could be of great help.

Secondly, the server did NOT crash. What you are saying *could* be the cause of problems, but I'm not sure. I do not think aspell was the problem though, but can't rule it out.

At about 12:31pm EST (GMT -5), the server ran out of swap space. It took some time before I noticed this. Fortunately I had an SSH connection to the server at the time. At about 12:47pm I killed apache and all was fine after this. I did not reboot the server, nor did it hang.

So, what I would like to do is have you email your test attempt. I will give it a shot myself during non-peak hours and see if there is an increased load on the server. I'll also make sure someone is around to hard boot the box if needed Wink

You can email it to nuttzy AT blizzhackers com or send me a link to download it.

Again, I greatly appreciate your working with me on this Very Happy

BTW, I do plan to install or write a swap space monitor that will kill apache (or whatever is needed) if things get out of hand!

Thanks!
-Nuttzy Cool

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tinytim · Joined: 30 Jan 2005 Posts: 2

Ok, I will email you the exact data that I used, I saved a copy of it! The reason I thought the server had crashed is Apache reported in the spell pop up windows an out of memory error! I then closed the window and was going to the forum to report it to you but I got a database error saying the forum database could not be accessed or something like that. Then no matter what page I tried to access on the server spellingcow.com the page would not load, a DNS error would result after a long wait trying to load a page. Again it all happened with that one request I made, I am sorry! I will send you that data, mail will be coming from jbricci (AT) gmail (DOT) com, subject: spell check text attached!

Tiny

nuttzy99 · Site Admin Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 1068

Hrmmmm... still have not gotten it. Send it to any address at spellingcow.com. I've got mail mapping, so anything in front of the AT symbol will come to my mailbox.

-Nuttzy Cool

_________________
<?php echo "something wicked awesome for my sig"; ?>