Purge Command Broken 10.8.1

[isrefel]

Just updated to 10.8.1 on my 2012 MBA. Someone had commented on OSXDaily that their purge command in terminal was now returning this error.

[ERROR] <CPPathUtils.c:526> The device-file for this operating system, 'osx-12.1.0.xml', was not found. An attempt to revert to a previous revision of the OS device-file: 'osx-12.0.0.xml' has been made. Please file a Radar report with Apple, on the 'CoreProfile' component, version 'X'.

I tested the command on my machine and it also returns this error. OS X 12.1.0? Anyone else having this issue?

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by isrefel

Just updated to 10.8.1 on my 2012 MBA. Someone had commented on OSXDaily that their purge command in terminal was now returning this error.

You don't need to use purge. It removes the advantage that inactive memory has, without adding any benefit, since inactive memory is the same as free memory in all other respects.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

[Mal]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

You don't need to use purge. It removes the advantage that inactive memory has, without adding any benefit, since inactive memory is the same as free memory in all other respects.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

To be fair, if the OP is a developer, there are legitimate use cases for the purge command. It shouldn't be inoperable, unless it's been replaced with another function.

jW

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by Mal

To be fair, if the OP is a developer, there are legitimate use cases for the purge command. It shouldn't be inoperable, unless it's been replaced with another function.

I agree a developer might have use for it. The problem is many non-developer users mistakenly think they need it.

[isrefel]

Questions still stand. Can anyone replicate this?

[tarjan]

I run a number of high memory use applications and can get up near 8gb pretty quickly. Even if my primary application is getting larger and needs more ram, my inactive memory might stay at 2+gb in size in Snow leopard and Lion.

At that point he hard drive chugs and my system becomes incredibly inefficient swapping huge amounts of ram for the active application without releasing anything from older or non active apps/cache..

Run purge and bam, the main application is working properly again and I see no degredation otherwise.

I'm sure this is a specific and special case and it might be many months between times where this does occur, definitely not daily, but a normal user MAY need it. They just need to know, 100%, that they do. Hopefully this is all actually resolved in ML so it would be a moot point, but I just in case..

[Feed Me]

Mine does the same.

[Icy1007]

OS X 12.1.0 refers to Darwin v12.1.0.

I've heard that purge still works even though it gives that error message.

[rodknocker]

Originally Posted by Icy1007

OS X 12.1.0 refers to Darwin v12.1.0.

I've heard that purge still works even though it gives that error message.

It sill works

[dyn]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

You don't need to use purge. It removes the advantage that inactive memory has, without adding any benefit, since inactive memory is the same as free memory in all other respects.

Purge only forces the disk cache to be purged. There are other items in inactive memory as well.

[Icy1007]

Originally Posted by dyn

Purge only forces the disk cache to be purged. There are other items in inactive memory as well.

Actually it doesn't. Purge releases all inactive memeory, it has nothing to do with the disk.

[davidlv]

Originally Posted by isrefel

Just updated to 10.8.1 on my 2012 MBA. Someone had commented on OSXDaily that their purge command in terminal was now returning this error.
[ERROR] <CPPathUtils.c:526> The device-file for this operating system, 'osx-12.1.0.xml', was not found. An attempt to revert to a previous revision of the OS device-file: 'osx-12.0.0.xml' has been made. Please file a Radar report with Apple, on the 'CoreProfile' component, version 'X'.
I tested the command on my machine and it also returns this error. OS X 12.1.0? Anyone else having this issue?

Yes, same error message appears here too, but as mentioned above, the purge actually still works. Apple must (?) know the reason that error occurs, but why wasn't it resolved? Seems that an error message like that may be valid in a developer's release, but in this public release, it just seems sloppy.
Definitely not

[dyn]

Originally Posted by Icy1007

Actually it doesn't. Purge releases all inactive memeory, it has nothing to do with the disk.

That's not what Apple nor the documentation say:

purge -- force disk cache to be purged (flushed and emptied)

From the purge manual (man purge).

Inactive:

This information is in RAM but it is not actively being used, it was recently used.

For example, if you've been using Mail and then quit it, the RAM that Mail was using is marked as Inactive memory. Inactive memory is available for use by another application, just like Free memory. However, if you open Mail before its Inactive memory is used by a different application, Mail will open quicker because its Inactive memory is converted to Active memory, instead of loading it from the slower drive.

From the Apple kb-article: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342

Again: purge does not release all inactive mem, it only writes the disk cache (which resides in memory) to disk. This is done automatically every x time anyway. Purging is quite pointless.

[Macman45]

Originally Posted by isrefel

Questions still stand. Can anyone replicate this?

See my post from last night, it's a known issue..For a while, terminal wouldn't work at all for me on all 3 Macs...got it back, but as you say, purge and a few other commands (also people having issues with old scripts) remain broken.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1427733

I suspect Apple will probably patch this fairly quickly though

[iOrbit]

i just ran the purge command, no error.

updated to 10.8.1. last night

[kbmb]

Same here.....command throws that error, but memory is still purged.

-Kevin

[ikol-22]

I've got the same here (Italy) with a Purge command just after the last update 10.8.1 and I confirm that when Inactive memory is over than Free the system is definitely slow.

[wd40]

Originally Posted by isrefel

Questions still stand. Can anyone replicate this?

I can replicate this error as well.


Now, this may not be the right thread for this, but I'm losing a ridiculous amount of time each day on memory time-out and restarts.

I have a 2011 2.2GHz i7 with 8GB of RAM and it behaves as though there were only 2GB. If chrome is open, inactive memory jumps above 3GB and free falls below 150MB.

Running 'purge' doesn't clear the 3GB of inactive -

What the heck is the 3GB inactive storing and where is it storing it?? No matter what I do to clear up chrome (delete local storage, extensions, etc.), it always returns when I start the app up.

I'm so tired of the color wheel and bi-hourly restarts...

Any suggestions? I've google the heck out of this issue and there's a lot of discussion on it. But no one seems to have an answer that addresses the cause. Apps like "Free Memory" don't speed things up for me at all. If anything, they make things worse (if that's even possible)

[EHLO]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

You don't need to use purge. It removes the advantage that inactive memory has, without adding any benefit, since inactive memory is the same as free memory in all other respects.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

It's useful from a user perspective.
On a MacBook Air with 4MB memory it will swap to disk when low, see pageouts with the top command.
Using purge stops the pageouts and reduces writes to the SSD.

[Watabou]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

You don't need to use purge. It removes the advantage that inactive memory has, without adding any benefit, since inactive memory is the same as free memory in all other respects.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

I don't know. For some reason ML just doesn't want to free up inactive memory. I will have less than 20MB of free memory remaining with over a GB of inactive memory just sitting around and when I get beach balls, OS X doesn't seem to purge that inactive memory when the app needs more. It's only when I manually purge that everything is fine again and the app is responsive again.

[dukebound85]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

You don't need to use purge. It removes the advantage that inactive memory has, without adding any benefit, since inactive memory is the same as free memory in all other respects.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

Purging has boosted my system performance when one app is using alot of ram (as in all of my ram)

[TheMTtakeover]

Hmm. So people can get windows computers cheaper and they seem to be the ones that "just work". No need to purge memory. It as an OS can handle ram like an OS is supposed to.

[rthr]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

You don't need to use purge. It removes the advantage that inactive memory has, without adding any benefit, since inactive memory is the same as free memory in all other respects.

Fresh OS X 10.8 install (updated to 10.8.1) and a fresh copy of Apple's Logic (updated to 9.1.7).

A plugin in Logic tells me that I'm out of memory. I have 43MB Free and about 10GB Inactive. After a purge, suddenly I'm not out of memory and can load more samples.

Originally Posted by Mal

To be fair, if the OP is a developer, there are legitimate use cases for the purge command. It shouldn't be inoperable, unless it's been replaced with another function.

Or a musician using Apple's flagship DAW.

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

I agree a developer might have use for it. The problem is many non-developer users mistakenly think they need it.

How else do I use the memory in my computer, because it's not automagically using my Inactive memory as though it is Free?

[flyc14]

purge throws the following error
flycs-MacBook-Air:~ flyc$ purge
[ERROR] <CPPathUtils.c:526> The device-file for this operating system, 'osx-12.1.0.xml', was not found. An attempt to revert to a previous revision of the OS device-file: 'osx-12.0.0.xml' has been made. Please file a Radar report with Apple, on the 'CoreProfile' component, version 'X'.

This is the most annoyance I've got for investing in an OSX upgrade. Since the upgrade, OSX has crashed a few times and battery life has reduced. Hangs for about 7 seconds, when woken from sleep. Shutdown, which used to take 3 seconds now wavers between 15 seconds and 10.

My previous 2 upgrades (Leopard to snow leopard & snow leopard to Lion) made my system faster and more stable. 10.8 had fewer issues, 10.8.1 appears to have more issues than 10.8. I've not installed a single piece of new software between Lion, Mountain Lion and Mountain Lion 10.8.1. The only change in the system is OS X upgrade; I wish I could rollback the upgrade.

Steve - I dearly miss you.

[fartey]

Originally Posted by isrefel

Just updated to 10.8.1 on my 2012 MBA. Someone had commented on OSXDaily that their purge command in terminal was now returning this error.

[ERROR] <CPPathUtils.c:526> The device-file for this operating system, 'osx-12.1.0.xml', was not found. An attempt to revert to a previous revision of the OS device-file: 'osx-12.0.0.xml' has been made. Please file a Radar report with Apple, on the 'CoreProfile' component, version 'X'.

I tested the command on my machine and it also returns this error. OS X 12.1.0? Anyone else having this issue?

Same I've got a late 2010 mac mini and it says the same thing. I recently installed memcheck from an article at mac|life.com. After that I have the same identical error message when ever I use purge. How do you even report it to apple. I was doing the memcheck because my mac mini was so slow I thought my 4GB memory was defected anyway I got the same message.