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com.apple.SafariServices
#42183 10/17/16 09:37 AM
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Whatever it is, it's crashed 78 times in the past 6 days without my ever noticing, and all I've done that was even remotely related to Safari during that period was install and uninstall Safari Technology Preview and update Flash.

I haven't been able to learn enough about the process from Googling to give me any insight into what may be causing the crashes.

Is anybody else experiencing them?

Thanks.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: com.apple.SafariServices
artie505 #42186 10/17/16 03:23 PM
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It just occurred to me to look in Console, and I found

Code:
10/17/16 7:14:12.424 AM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.SafariServices[44416])
Service exited due to signal: Trace/BPT trap: 5

Google isn't the least bit helpful.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: com.apple.SafariServices
artie505 #42207 10/19/16 10:46 PM
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That console message is unlikely to be of much meaning or value to anyone other than Apple's Software Engineers. There are lots of things used in common by Safari and Safari Technology Preview including cache files, Bookmark files, and the underlying browser toolkit that comes in the box with OS X/MacOS. Your error could be arising from any of those common elements or potentially something even deeper than that.

There is nothing in this thread indicating what you have already done, and I am not inclined to go looking for a previous thread, but I would start with the simplest things like disabling browser extensions, and deleting the browser cache and history. If that doesn't solve the problem, consider reinstalling OS X/MacOS on the theory there may be a damaged executable somewhere.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

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Re: com.apple.SafariServices
joemikeb #42212 10/21/16 05:31 AM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
There is nothing in this thread indicating what you have already done, and I am not inclined to go looking for a previous thread, but I would start with the simplest things like disabling browser extensions, and deleting the browser cache and history. If that doesn't solve the problem, consider reinstalling OS X/MacOS on the theory there may be a damaged executable somewhere.

Thanks for kicking in.

No, there's no previous thread, and to be perfectly honest I posted looking for an easy answer.

Since I've experienced more than 100 crashes in less than a week and not been aware of a single one of them until after it was long past I've got absolutely no inclination to go through the aggravation of running either in Safe Mode or with my extensions disabled for as long as it will take to establish something, but I have cleared Safari's cache and history numerous times with no joy. I did a clean install a week or two before this issue arose, and because of its innocuousness don't feel like going through the experience again. (Is there an alternative to Archive & Install of which I'm unaware?)

The only thing I remember having done in the time period involved is I updated Flash, but I certainly haven't run it as often as I've experienced crashes, and running it experimentally doesn't result in any.

My one affirmative action has been to work with Console open on my desktop to see if I could get a handle on what was triggering the crashes, but I haven't been alert enough to catch any of them until it was too late.

My next step is going to be setting up a folder action to alert me to the creation of new files in /Users/artie/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports in real time, and that, perhaps, will get me closer to a solution.

Sometimes troubleshooting is more trouble than the trouble, itself! frown

More later.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: com.apple.SafariServices
artie505 #42256 10/24/16 02:40 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
It just occurred to me to look in Console, and I found

Code:
10/17/16 7:14:12.424 AM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.SafariServices[44416])
Service exited due to signal: Trace/BPT trap: 5

Google isn't the least bit helpful.

FWIW, (and that may not be much!) a "trap" is an externally accessible trigger an author puts in their app, to either "signal" something (like "files were dropped into that folder, you need to process them now") or to kill it. ("ok render engine, we're done with this video, you can quit now") So apps quitting due to a caught signal is often expected behavior. Hitting Ctrl-C while a terminal script is running is an example of a signal that didn't get trapped. The app can elect to ignore most signals that are trying to kill it (by trapping them) also, so they usually "die willingly". Selecting to quit an app in activity monitor sends a signal. Selecting to KILL an app from Force Quit sends a "kill -9", also known as an "uncatchable signal", which cannot be caught with a trap, (isn't that terminology fun?) and will force the app to terminate after the kernel cleans up after it. (kernel having problems doing cleanup is what makes for processes that "refuse to die")


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Re: com.apple.SafariServices
Virtual1 #42285 10/25/16 06:02 AM
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Thanks. I always appreciate the opportunity to learn something new about OS X, arcane though it may be.

Question, though:

Quote:
So apps quitting due to a caught signal is often expected behavior. Hitting Ctrl-C while a terminal script is running is an example of a signal that didn't get trapped.

I guess I didn't learn too much, because I'd have guessed that that's an example of a signal that DID get trapped, or does

Quote:
The app can elect to ignore most signals that are trying to kill it (by trapping them) also, so they usually "die willingly".

govern? confused


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: com.apple.SafariServices
artie505 #42286 10/25/16 06:46 AM
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I found three ways to get real-time changed folder alerts:
  1. A folder action (that was easily implementable through either Mavericks or Yosemite but no longer is)
  2. An Automator workflow (Automator confuses the hell out of me!)
  3. A shell script (that looked more daunting than it probably actually was)
But while I was deciding which way to go - I had already decided that joemike's suggestion that I reinstall OS X was overkill, but Archive & Install lives? revived it as a possibility. - and thinking about what help I might need to get there the crashes slowed down to a trickle.

And since I now haven't experienced a crash in more than 36 hours, and a new version of Safari has been released, I'm back in a holding pattern until I see what happens with Safari 10.0.1.

As I've said, though, in this instance, troubleshooting may be more trouble than the trouble, itself.

New info that I found in the crash report:

Code:
Dyld Error Message:
  Symbol not found: _OBJC_CLASS_$_FirstLogInHelper
  Referenced from: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SafariServices.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.SafariServices.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.SafariServices
  Expected in: /System/Library/StagedFrameworks/Safari/Safari.framework/Versions/A/Safari
 in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SafariServices.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.SafariServices.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.SafariServices

That somehow sounds like a wonky Safari installation?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: com.apple.SafariServices
artie505 #42322 10/26/16 07:13 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
Quote:
So apps quitting due to a caught signal is often expected behavior. Hitting Ctrl-C while a terminal script is running is an example of a signal that didn't get trapped.

I guess I didn't learn too much, because I'd have guessed that that's an example of a signal that DID get trapped, or does

Quote:
The app can elect to ignore most signals that are trying to kill it (by trapping them) also, so they usually "die willingly".

govern? confused

Saying that a signal was "caught" or "trapped" (somewhat synonymous, since it's a trap that does the catching) means the program set up a special procedure (a trap) to do something special if it receives that signal from another process. If no trap has been set up for that specific type of signal, then the signal "doesn't get caught by a trap", and the system takes the default behavior instead. SIGIO will be ignored. SIGTERM will somewhat softly terminate the process. SIGKILL is referred to as an "uncatchable signal" as there is no trap that can be used to catch it and process it. Processes receiving a KILL signal are removed from the process table, their files are close, and their resources are reclaimed. The process is not given any further opportunity to run, it is halted when its currently running timeslice (if any) is up.

SIGIO is often used for a process to signal to another that it's time to do something - a data file is ready for processing, the io buffer is empty and a process is requesting more data be received and stored in the buffer, etc. SIGTERM is generated by things like CTRL-C, that mean someone is requesting the process to stop. They're not in a big hurry, it's not urgent. Just finish what you were doing (finish rendering that frame and add it to the outgoing buffer), clean up any mess you've made (delete those temp files), and quit. SIGKILL can leave a mess behind. Files may be in a state of flux, a buffer may be half full or half empty, temp files may be left sitting around, etc. But if the process is stuck, this generally stops it and allows you to run it again if you want to.

Not everything responds immediately to a kill, and some things won't respond at all. It's usually due to something deadlocked in the kernel. A program is trying to read a file, but the hard drive just hung up. It's still spinning but is ignoring the computer's request. The program called an API that wound up in the kernel talking with the hard drive, and it is waiting on the drive to reply to something. It'll hold onto that time slice until at least it gets back to the main program, where it will exit on receiving the kill, but the kernel doesn't know about the kill and will keep waiting on the drive. Maybe forever. It's like you're on the phone with a store, who has you on hold while they look up a price, when someone says hey its time to go get in the car. "I'm on the phone, hang on just a minute..." and the colorful wheel starts to spin. Maybe your transfer got disconnected or something, and no one is ever going to take you off hold, you don't know. If it's not THAT important, COME ON LETS GO and you put down the phone. (kill -9 / siggkill / force quit) Or maybe this is urgent and they are going to be closing for the weekend and you NEED to get an answer today, tough, you're going to have to wait. (the unkillable process) Eventually you get tired of waiting and realize no one is ever coming back to the call and you have no alternative but to just hang up. (reboooooot!)



I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: com.apple.SafariServices
Virtual1 #42339 10/27/16 06:39 AM
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I'm not gonna say "Got it!", but I will say that I've now got a better understanding of what goes on.

Many thanks.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: com.apple.SafariServices
artie505 #42382 10/28/16 11:44 PM
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I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that it looks like my Safari crashes have stopped as mysteriously as they began.

I hadn't experienced one in 1 1/2 days prior to updating to Safari 10.0.1 nor have I experienced one in the 3 1/2 days since I updated.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire

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