Copying file to clipboard causes high memory usage and system crash (OOM)

[Juts2]

Compositor

Niri

Distribution

CachyOS

If Other, please specify

No response

Select your Installation Method

DankInstaller

Was this your original Installation method?

Yes

If no, specify

No response

dms doctor -vC

Click to expand

## DMS Doctor Report

System

• [ok] Operating System: CachyOS
  • ID: cachyos, Version: rolling, Arch: amd64
• [ok] Architecture: amd64
• [ok] Display Server: Wayland
  • WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-1

Versions

• [ok] DMS CLI: dms v1.2.0-227-g81d5235b
  • /usr/bin/dms
• [ok] Quickshell: quickshell 0.2.1, revision dacfa9de829ac7cb173825f593236bf2c21f637e, distributed by: CachyOS Linux
  • /usr/bin/qs
• [ok] DMS Shell: v1.4-beta
  • /usr/share/quickshell/dms

Installation

• [ok] DMS Configuration: Found
  • /usr/share/quickshell/dms
• [ok] shell.qml: Present
  • /usr/share/quickshell/dms/shell.qml
• [info] Install Type: System package
  • /usr/share/quickshell/dms

Compositor

• [ok] niri: 25.11
  • /usr/bin/niri
• [info] Active: niri

Quickshell Features

• [ok] Polkit: Available
  • Authentication prompts
• [ok] IdleMonitor: Available
  • Idle detection
• [ok] IdleInhibitor: Available
  • Prevent idle/sleep
• [ok] ShortcutInhibitor: Available
  • Allow shortcut management (niri)

Optional Features

• [ok] accountsservice: Available
  • User accounts
• [ok] power-profiles-daemon: Available
  • Power profile management
• [ok] logind: Available
  • Session management
• [ok] I2C/DDC: 1 monitor(s) detected
  • External monitor brightness control
• [ok] Terminal: ghostty
• [ok] Network: NetworkManager
  • NetworkManager present. Using NM API.
• [ok] matugen: Installed
  • Dynamic theming
• [ok] dgop: Installed
  • System monitoring
• [ok] cava: Installed
  • Audio visualizer
• [info] khal: Not installed
  • Calendar events
• [ok] danksearch: Installed
  • File search
• [info] fprintd: Not installed
  • Fingerprint auth

Config Files

• [ok] settings.json: Present
  • /home/justin/.config/DankMaterialShell/settings.json
• [info] clsettings.json: Not yet created
  • /home/justin/.config/DankMaterialShell/clsettings.json
• [ok] plugin_settings.json: Present
  • /home/justin/.config/DankMaterialShell/plugin_settings.json
• [ok] session.json: Present
  • /home/justin/.local/state/DankMaterialShell/session.json
• [ok] dms-colors.json: Present
  • /home/justin/.cache/DankMaterialShell/dms-colors.json

Services

• [ok] dms.service: enabled, active
• [info] greetd: Not installed
  • Optional greeter service

Environment

• [info] QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME: qt6ct
• [info] QS_ICON_THEME: Not set

---

Summary: 0 error(s), 0 warning(s), 28 ok

Description

If I open a file browser like dolphin and press ctrl-c or right click copy a large file, the dms process increases memory usage massively. If i copy a 7gb file, dms gains 14+gb. A 55gb file crashes my system (64gb of ram)

If the system has not crashed, memory usage does seem to go back down after ~5 minutes.

Tested in KDE plasma without dms running and cannot reproduce the issue.

Expected Behavior

No or minimal extra memory usage during copy.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open file browser. I tested dolphin and "Files" from gnome.
2. Locate a large file and copy it with ctrl-c
3. observe dms process memory usage

Error Messages/Logs

Mar 05 23:47:15 Justins systemd[1086]: dms.service: Consumed 7.888s CPU time over 5min 6.512s wall clock time, 24.3G memory peak.
Mar 05 23:53:41 Justins systemd[1086]: dms.service: Consumed 10.748s CPU time over 6min 25.795s wall clock time, 16.6G memory peak.
Mar 05 23:55:29 Justins systemd[5608]: dms.service: Consumed 4.612s CPU time over 46.512s wall clock time, 16.1G memory peak.

Screenshots/Recordings

[Purian23]

Thanks for the Epic Report! @bbedward and I will always remember this one!