265 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
265 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
TOP
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Version 3.5
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Beta Release 11
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William LeFebvre
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with much help from others
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND THEIR ANSWERS
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This FAQ is broken out in to several topics.
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GENERAL
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1. "Where do I get the latest version of top?"
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The official site for top is "ftp.groupsys.com" in the directory
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"/pub/top". It is also available from the following mirror sites:
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"pharos.dgim.doc.ca" in /packages/top, "uiarchive.uiuc.edu" in
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/pub/packages/top, "sunsite.auc.dk" in /pub/unix/top. European
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users should consider using the Denmark (dk) site.
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2. "Is there a web page for top?"
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Yes. Point your browser at http://www.groupsys.com/top. It includes
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all documentation, a nice interactive display which describes the
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various components of the output of top, web-based retrieval of the
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package, year 2000 information, and pointers to the mailing list.
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3. "Is there a mailing list for top?"
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The official list for announcements is "top-announce@groupsys.com".
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This list is managed by "majordomo@groupsys.com". Announcements of
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importance to all top users will be sent to this list, including new
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releases, availability of beta test versions, emergency revisions and
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patches, etc. Anyone is welcome to join top-announce. This is a
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read-only list. The list of subscribers will not (intentionally) be
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made available, and postings to the list are limited.
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In addition, there is a top developers mailing list that is used by
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beta testers and other people who help me port the program to various
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machines. Membership to this list is solely at my discretion. If you
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feel qualified to act as a beta tester, or if you are doing development
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work on top (such as porting to a new platform), you may submit a
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request by sending a message to "top-spinners-request@groupsys.com"
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containing the word "subscribe". I will contact you within a few days,
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as my schedule permits.
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4. "What about Year 2000 compliance"?
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Top should not experience any problems with the transition to the year
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2000. A full statement concerning top and the year 2000 can be found
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in the file "Y2K" included with the distribution.
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5. "Why does it take so long for a new version of top to go through the
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beta test process?"
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This is completely my fault. I have just not had the time to give top
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the attention it deserves. I thank everyone for their patience, and I
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hope that with the recent changes in the direction of my career that I
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can spend more time on this.
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6. "Top is not written in ANSI C. Do you ever plan to change that?"
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Top predates ANSI C by about 5 years. Yeah, it'll get "fixed" eventually.
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Probably in 3.6.
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CONFIGURING
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7. "Configure said that it saw /proc and is recommending that I install top
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setuid root. Is there any way around this? Is it safe?"
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There is no way around it. Complain to POSIX. Every effort has been made
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to make top a secure setuid program. However, we cannot guarantee that
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there are no security problems associated with this configuration. The
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places where top is most vulnerable are the builtin kill and renice
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commands. There is no internal top command that causes top to start a shell
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as a subprocess. Some SVR4 systems may contain a bug that enables a user to
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renice his own processes downward (to lower nice values that are more
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favorable for the process). This problem has been fixed for the Solaris 2.x
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modules, but may still exist in others. We will hopefully fix this up in
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the next release.
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8. "Why is Configure a c-shell script? I thought c-shell scripts were
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evil?"
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They are. :-) I'll probably be rewriting the Configure script for the
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next release, or switching to something like Gnu configure.
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COMPILING
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9. "We just upgraded our operating system to a new version and top broke.
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What should we do?"
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Recompile it. Top is very sensitive to changes in internal kernel data
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structures. It is not uncommon for a new version of the operating system to
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include changes to kernel data structures.
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RUNNING
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10. "I just finished compiling top and it works fine for root, but when
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I try to run it as a regular user it either complains about files
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it can't open or it doesn't display all the information it should.
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Did I do something wrong?"
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Well, you're just not done. On many operating systems today, access to
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many of the kernel memory devices and other system files is restricted to
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either root or a particular group. The Configure script figures this out
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(usually) and makes sure that the "intsall" rule in the Makefile will
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install top so that anyone can run it successfully. However, you have to
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*install* it first. Do this with the command "make install".
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11. "Top is (not) displaying idle processes and I don't (do) want it to."
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This default has only changed about a dozen times, and I finally got tired
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of people whining about it. Go read the manual page for the current version
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and pay special attention to the description of the "TOP" environment
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variable.
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12. "We have so much memory in our machine that the memory status display
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(the fourth line) ends up being longer than 80 characters. This
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completely messes up top's output. Is there a patch?"
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Most modules have been changed to use new memory formatting functions which
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will display large values in terms of megabytes instead of kilobytes. This
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should fix all occurences of this problem. If you encounter a system where
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this large memory display overflow is still occurring, please let me know
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(send mail to <wnl@groupsys.com>). Also note that newer versions of top can
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use columns beyond 79, and understand window resizes. So you can always
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make your window bigger.
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13. "I tried to compile top with gcc and it doesn't work. I get
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compilation errors in the include files, or I get an executable that
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dumps core, or top displays incorrect numbers in some of the displays.
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What's wrong?"
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Gnu CC likes very much to use its own include files. Not being a gcc
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expert, I can't explain why it does this. But I can tell you that if
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you upgrade your operating system (say from Solaris 2.4 to Solaris
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2.5) after installing gcc, then the include files that gcc uses will
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be incorrect, especially those found in the "sys" directory. Your
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choices are: (1) rebuild and reinstall the "standard" include files
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for gcc (look for scripts in the distribution called "fixincludes" and
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"fixinc.svr4"), (2) compile machine.c with "CFLAGS=-I/usr/include"
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then make the rest of the object files normally, or (3) use "cc".
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Solaris 2.6 users should also consult FAQ #20.
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14. "The cpu state percentages are all wrong, indicating that my machine is
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using 95% system time when it is clearly idle. What's wrong?"
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This can happen if you compiled with gcc using the wrong include files.
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See the previous question.
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SUNOS PROBLEMS
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15. "I tried compiling top under SunOS version 4.1.x and it got compile time
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errors. Is there a patch?"
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If you try compiling top in a "System V environment" under SunOS (that is,
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/usr/5bin is before /usr/bin on your path) then the compilation may fail.
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This is mostly due to the fact that top thinks its being compiled on a
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System V machine when it really isn't. The only solution is to put /usr/bin
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and /usr/ucb before /usr/5bin on your path and try again.
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SVR4-derived PROBLEMS
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16. "When I run top on my SVR4-derived operating system, it displays all
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the system information at the top but does not display any process
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information (or only displayes process information for my own
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processes). Yet when I run it as root, everything works fine."
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Your system probably uses the pseudo file system "/proc", which is by
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default only accessible by root. Top needs to be installed setuid root on
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such systems if it is going to function correctly for normal users.
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SOLARIS PROBLEMS
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17. "Under Solaris 2, when I run top as root it only shows root processes,
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or it only shows processes with a PID less than 1000. It refuses to
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show anything else. What do I do?"
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You probably compiled it with /usr/ucb/cc instead of the real C compiler.
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/usr/ucb/cc is a cc front end that compiles programs in BSD source-level
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compatability mode. You do not want that. Make sure that /usr/ucb is not
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on your path and try compiling top again.
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18. "Under Solaris 2, I compiled top using what I am sure is the correct
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compiler but when I try to run it it complains about missing dynamic
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libraries. What is wrong?"
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Check to see if you have LD_LIBRARY_PATH defined in your shell. If you do,
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make sure that /usr/ucblib is not on the path anywhere. Then try compiling
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top again.
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19. "Under Solaris 2, when I try to run top it complains that it can't open
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the library "libucb.so.1". So I changed the LIBS line in m_sunos5.c
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to include -R/usr/ucblib to make sure that the dynamic linker will look
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there when top runs. I figured this was just an oversight. Was I
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right?"
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No, you were not right. As distributed, top requires NO alterations
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for successful compilation and operations under any release of Solaris
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2. You probably compiled top with /usr/ucb/cc instead of the real C
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compiler. See FAQ #10 for more details.
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20. "When I try to compile top under Solaris 2.6 using gcc I get compile
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time errors. There appear to be problems with the include files,
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such as 'u_rlimit has incomplete type' and/or 'u_saved_rlimit has
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incomplete type'. I've already run fixinc.svr4 as per FAQ #13.
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Why didn't that fix it?"
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Only top versions 3.5 and later are compatible with Solaris 2.6. Make
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sure you are using the most up-to-date version. Earlier beta release
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copies of version 3.5 had additional problems when compiled with gcc.
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Retrieve the official version 3.5 (non-beta) release from one of the
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sites listed in FAQ #1 or FAQ #2.
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SCO PROBLEMS
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21. "When I try to run Configure, it complains about a syntax error."
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Some versions of SCO's csh do not understand the syntax "$<". Earlier
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releases of top depended on this syntax to read input from the installer's
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terminal during the installation process. Version 3.5 fixes this.
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SVR42 PROBLEMS
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22. "The memory display doesn't work right. Why?"
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This is a known bug with the svr42 module. The problem has been traced down
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to a potential bug in the "mem" driver. The author of the svr42 module is
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working on a fix.
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STILL STUCK
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23. I'm still stuck. To whom do I report problems with top?"
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The most common problems are caused by top's sensitivity to internal kernel
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data structures. So make sure that you are using the right include files,
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and make sure that you test out top on the same machine where you compiled
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it. Sun's BSD Source Compatability Mode is also a common culprit. Make
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sure you aren't using either /usr/ucb/cc or any of the libraries in
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/usr/ucblib. Finally, make sure you are using the correct module. If there
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does not appear to be one appropriate for your computer, then top probably
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will not work on your system.
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If after reading all of this file and checking everything you can you are
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still stuck, then send mail to "wnl@groupsys.com". I will answer your mail
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when I have time. Please bear with me in that regard! If it looks like the
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problem is machine-specific, I will forward the report along to the module's
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author. If you would like to converse directly with the module author, the
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authors' names are listed at the beginning of the module .c file in the
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"machine" directory.
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