On 18/07/2023 12:11 EEST D D pierre.alletru@gmail.com wrote:
After further testing we realized that it was due to service_count = 100. We suspect that when the service count is reached, a new process is spawned, explaining the large number of imap-login processes.
With service_count = 0 we stick with only 4 processes (process_min_avail). However, we're concerned with having these processes run indefinitely in case of memory leaks.
Any insights on that?
It's unlikely that they leak memory, but in case that worries, you can do two things:
configure vsz_limit for the service(s), or configure service_count for the service(s). The first one will slay the login processes, disconnecting everyone, if there is a leak, the second one will recycle the process at some point.
Since 2.3.19, you can also use https://doc.dovecot.org/settings/core/#core_setting-process_shutdown_filter to shutdown the process if it's memory consumption goes too high.
Aki