Error: Couldn't run ps ax: {}

[bodiam]

Hi all,

I just downloaded the newest version of Meteor, and when I try to start a simple application on my Mac, I get the following error: Error: Couldn't run ps ax: {}

LM-AMS-00963649:my_cool_ap2 epragt$ meteor
[[[[[ ~/Projects/playground/my_cool_ap2 ]]]]]

=> Started proxy.
=> Starting MongoDB... -
/Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/lib/node_modules/fibers/future.js:206
                        throw(ex);
                              ^
Error: Couldn't run ps ax: {}
    at Object.Future.wait (/Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/lib/node_modules/fibers/future.js:326:15)
    at findMongoPids (/Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/tools/run-mongo.js:84:14)
    at findMongoAndKillItDead (/Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/tools/run-mongo.js:114:14)
    at launchOneMongoAndWaitForReadyForInitiate (/Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/tools/run-mongo.js:229:5)
    at launchMongo (/Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/tools/run-mongo.js:491:7)
    at _.extend._startOrRestart (/Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/tools/run-mongo.js:580:19)
    at _.extend.start (/Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/tools/run-mongo.js:546:10)
    at _.extend.start (/Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/tools/run-all.js:131:24)
    at Object.exports.run (/Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/tools/run-all.js:272:10)
    at main.registerCommand.name [as func] (/Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/tools/commands.js:210:17)
    at /Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/tools/main.js:949:23
    - - - - -
    at /Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/tools/run-mongo.js:55:22
    at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:633:7)
    at ChildProcess.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:98:17)
    at maybeClose (child_process.js:743:16)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (child_process.js:810:5)
LM-AMS-00963649:my_cool_ap2 epragt$

[glasser]

OK, first off we have an error handling problem: we should get more information than {} from a failure. Just pushed something to address that.

It's pretty surprising to me that this doesn't work for you. ps is a basic Unix command that should ship with all Macs.

Can you show the terminal output from these commands?

ps ax
which ps
type -a ps
echo $PATH
ls -l /bin/ps

What version of Mac OS X are you running

[bodiam]

Hi, thanks for the help! Sure, the output is as follows:

ps ax

LM-AMS-00963649:~ epragt$ ps ax
  PID   TT  STAT      TIME COMMAND
    1   ??  Ss    16:35.46 /sbin/launchd
   11   ??  Ss     2:44.97 /usr/libexec/UserEventAgent (System)
   12   ??  Ss     0:24.11 /usr/libexec/kextd
   13   ??  Ss     1:18.47 /usr/libexec/taskgated -s
   14   ??  Ss     1:33.71 /usr/sbin/notifyd
   15   ??  Ss     0:20.92 /usr/sbin/securityd -i
   16   ??  Ss     0:25.03 /System/Library/CoreServices/powerd.bundle/powerd
   17   ??  Ss     0:14.78 /usr/libexec/diskarbitrationd
   18   ??  Ss     1:11.08 /usr/libexec/configd
   19   ??  Ss     0:36.87 /usr/sbin/syslogd
   21   ??  Ss     0:22.91 /usr/sbin/distnoted daemon
   22   ??  Ss     4:54.61 /usr/libexec/opendirectoryd
   29   ??  Ss     0:04.86 com.apple.authd
   36   ??  Ss     0:23.73 /System/Library/CoreServices/coreservicesd
   39   ??  Ss    22:31.92 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CarbonCore.framework/Versions/A/Support/fseventsd
   40   ??  Ss     0:02.46 /usr/libexec/usbd
   41   ??  Ss     1:28.24 /usr/sbin/mDNSResponder
   42   ??  Ss     0:23.60 /usr/libexec/networkd
   62   ??  SNs    0:01.32 /usr/libexec/warmd
   66   ??  Ss     0:00.69 /usr/libexec/stackshot -t
...etc

which ps:

LM-AMS-00963649:~ epragt$ which ps
/bin/ps

type -a ps:

LM-AMS-00963649:~ epragt$ type -a ps
ps is /bin/ps

echo $PATH

LM-AMS-00963649:~ epragt$ echo $PATH
/Users/epragt/dev/tools/maven-mp/bin:bin:/opt/boxen/homebrew/share/python:/opt/boxen/rbenv/shims:/opt/boxen/rbenv/bin:/opt/boxen/rbenv/plugins/ruby-build/bin:node_modules/.bin:/opt/boxen/nodenv/shims:/opt/boxen/nodenv/bin:/opt/boxen/bin:/opt/boxen/homebrew/bin:/opt/boxen/homebrew/sbin:/Users/epragt/dev/tools/maven-mp/bin:bin:/opt/boxen/homebrew/share/python:/opt/boxen/rbenv/shims:/opt/boxen/rbenv/bin:/opt/boxen/rbenv/plugins/ruby-build/bin:node_modules/.bin:/opt/boxen/nodenv/shims:/opt/boxen/nodenv/bin:/opt/boxen/bin:/opt/boxen/homebrew/bin:/opt/boxen/homebrew/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/X11/bin:/Users/epragt/dev/tools/localstatus:/opt/boxen/nodenv/versions/v0.8/bin

ls -l

LM-AMS-00963649:~ epragt$ ls -l /bin/ps
-rwsr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  46784 Feb 25 23:58 /bin/ps

I also applied your fix to my location installation, and I got a better, but still very weird, error message:

=> Starting MongoDB... -
/Users/epragt/.meteor/tools/6f23056589/lib/node_modules/fibers/future.js:206
                        throw(ex);
                              ^
Error: Couldn't run ps ax: {}; stdout maxBuffer exceeded.

This might be something, but I'm not sure if it applies to Meteor also: gmarty/grunt-closure-compiler#12

[bodiam]

Btw, I'm running 10.9.2 of MacOSX

[bodiam]

I found it, thanks for adding the patch! The problem is that there's an 'exec' of the ps ax, and it's exceeding the limit of 'exec'. There seem to be 2 solutions: increase the maxBuffer, which is what I did by adding {maxBuffer: 1024*1024}, or spawn the process instead, which seems to be the better solution.

If you want, I can try to write a fix using the spawn?

[glasser]

spawn is actually subtle enough (properly piping, using the right events, etc... we've messed this up before) that I'd rather just boost the maxBuffer. 10MB should be enough, riiiiiiight? Thanks for tracking this down.

[bigtbigtbigt]

I was experiencing this with Meteor 0.8.1.3, and I solved the issue by closing several of my many open applications.

[glasser]

This was fixed in Meteor 0.8.2 last June, for the record.