GNU bug report logs - #79965
Shepherd service manager hangs after some uptime

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: DaNike <danike <at> cirr.com>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: Shepherd service manager hangs after some uptime
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2025 17:45:40 -0600

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I have a Guix (Linux) system on which the Shepherd service manager is 
entirely nonresponsive. Attempts to use the `herd` command hang 
indefinitely, and inetd services (like SSH) do not work. The system as a 
whole /is/ responsive though; the running services continue to operate 
normally, and Guix is fully usable. PID 1 does NOT have high CPU usage, 
and is processing syslogs properly (messages go to the right files and 
terminals). On console, I am able to switch TTYs (though one does not 
have a shell on it because Shepherd isn't respawning the tty service for 
it) and view the syslog on C-M-F12.

My attempts to debug PID 1 have yielded nothing that I can make sense 
of. GDB is unable to get a Scheme stacktrace out of any running threads, 
and strace is less than intelligible due to the running services writing 
to their logs.

This system is still online, with Shepherd is its hung state, and will 
likely be for as long as the services continue to run. Are there any 
debugging steps I can take here that might provide more 
information/recover Shepherd?

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