[16.12] Server slow memory leak

[Aus_Karlos]

Since swapping from 16.9 to 16.12 the servers memory usage has increased significantly and climbs incrementally until Factorio becomes crippled by the server constantly paging to the Storage device.
I originally had the server running on 4GB of RAM on a VM runniing Linux Ubuntu Server 16.04 64-bit, the server would sit on about 60% RAM usage with on average 2-4 players connected. (With many other people spawning in and making a base). But have since upped it to 6GB. The server currently starts at 50% usage and slowly makes its way upto 97% (3% for reserved for the OS) over the course of 24hrs.

Ive also noted some other bugs.
-When a player doesn't visit his/her main base for a while the chunks become inactive even with radars over the area. Halting drone activity and belts.
- If these chunks (with a players base) become inactive there's a chance of biters randomly spawning inside the base (I have personally had biters replace some of my solar panels then eat their way out the map as enemy base expansion disabled).

However despite all this the server doesn't crash it will just crawl to a halt if the system RAM becomes full.

[Rseding91]

Thanks for the report however without a save file that shows the problem there's nothing we can do.

Our internal test suite running valgrind is detecting no memory leaks in any of the 900+ tests we've got setup. Are you sure it's not simply that the players are building more and doing more as the game runs?

What you describe with chunks going inactive sounds normal: as the factory backs up things go inactive due to a lack of work they need to do. That has nothing to do with biter expansion - biters don't care at all if a chunk is active or not to expand into it. They use a completely different system to determine which areas they should expand into.

I have seen a few reports of linux not releasing memory back to the OS when the application (factorio) tells the OS it's done with it. I've never had that problem on Windows so I can't really help with that - I think it's a native part of the OS and not something we can control.

[Aus_Karlos]

Ive uploaded a current save to my public google drive for you to inspect. It does contain a custom scenario (Could that cause an issue depending on what it does?)

Also you miss read the part about the biters. They expanded into an active polluted base chunk when Biter expansion is Disabled. They expanded into areas like my solar array that was occupied by solar panels. The biters replaced them. There was also another regular player on the server that it happened to as well.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ULW69P ... sp=sharing

Edit: Ive configed the server to not auto-pause.

[Rseding91]

I was downloading your save and the first thing I noticed is it's 170 MB. After loading it up I can see why: you've simply built 2 massive rails out in different directions generating a ton of chunks and charts in the process.

The memory usage for what you've got is completely normal. If you don't want it to consume that much you can't expand that far out.

[Aus_Karlos]

Its just strange from 16.9 the memory usage went from a solid 2.8GB. Then on 16.12 the server starts at ~2.8GB and continues to climb. So far its been running for almost 24hrs and the RAM usage sitting on 4.8GB and climbing.
The issue isn't running out of RAM (I can keep upping the VM RAM allotment) the issue is the consumption from 16.9 to 16.12 has increased 2 fold with little change to the map