I need help. I am relatively new to Linux. I have a program that uses message queue using the mq_open() call to create one. When the program is waiting for a message in the queue (blocking) and I abort the program using control-C, I am getting the ENOMEM error (cannot allocate memory) from mq_open() call after only repeating the scenario 3 to 4 times. I am aware that the message queue is persistent in the kernel and this causes memory leak. The only way to make it to work again is reboot the Linux machine. Is there a way that my program can check for any un-removed message queues and clean it up? But is the best solution for this type of problem? Thanks.

Someone please respond, I'm having the trouble too. I've caught the ctrl+c signal and I'm closing all the message queues at the destructor. But still the mq_open: cannot allocate memory problem exists. Have somebody figured this out? This is some old thread, has roxasmn found a remedy?

Have you checked all the memory leaks through valgrind? or hitting Google by the keyword ENOMEM might give something to dwell upon.

and the mq_close call returns 0 as expected?

hi,
can you try mq_unlink .more details on man page.

Hi -

You can use "mq_unlink()" to try to clean things up programmatically.

You can also use "ipcs" and "ipcrm" (much easier than rebooting the PC ) from the command line.

Hello all,

Thank you all for your very quick replies.
I have indeed used mq_unlink command to terminate the message queues.
Thanx for pointing out "ipcs" command. Now there's a major problem. In my program I create 2 threads which create message queues for communication. Still, when the program is running, "IPCS" command output doesn't show anything. It says no shared memory/MQ/Semaphore. I'm confused, does that mean my problem is not related to message queues? And why it doesn't show any message queues?
Bdw, I'm running the system on a arm based core

ipcs Shows system V message queues not POSIX message queues

If one process calls mq_unlink on a queue where another still has the queue open
then the resources allocated to the queue are not reclaimed until it is closed
by the second process. This can give ENOMEM errors when trying to create new queues.

You can use /proc to spot open queue descriptors for a process eg:

ls -l /proc/<pid>/fd

lr-x------ 1 steve steve 64 2011-08-10 16:08 4 -> /myq1
l-wx------ 1 steve steve 64 2011-08-10 16:09 5 -> /myq2 (deleted)