MySQL Bugs: #5281: Many "Opening tables" state hogging up

Bug #5281	Many "Opening tables" state hogging up
Submitted:	28 Aug 2004 17:19	Modified:	30 Sep 2004 15:56
Reporter:	Zoltán Pósfai	Email Updates:
Status:	No Feedback	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server	Severity:	S2 (Serious)
Version:	4.0.13/4.0.20	OS:	FreeBSD (FreeBSD)
Assigned to:		CPU Architecture:	Any

Description:
I have a server that has a lot of processes in "Opening tables" state. Only one of them is usually working. With low load they are sparse. With higher load they are more frequent or ever present. It seems that one process is stuck for a few seconds and that stop the others. (Tipical: 1 process working, 100 processes waiting). Processes a re mainly from PHP scripts doing simple SELECTs. 

I played around with the MySQL variables, but with no avail. The server run 4.0.13 so I tried 4.0.20 today. The result is the same of not worse...

The system is not really loaded (~66% CPU, 50% memory load)

How to repeat:
It always workes for me. 

Suggested fix:
G'luck :)

Shortly after the report I experienced my first mysql server crash. Process number went from around 40 to the maximal 500 in a few seconds and mysql stopped answering completely. Had to kill it...

This was with 4.0.20. 
4.0.13 never did this.

Sorry, but the bug system is not the appropriate forum for asking
support questions. Your problem is not the result of a bug.
For a list of more appropriate places to ask for help using MySQL
products, please visit http://www.mysql.com/support/

Thank you for your interest in MySQL.

If it is not a bug then what is it? I have a server that even crashed once while sql load was small. I have only simple selects running and they are stuck. There is no locking or persistent connection and a MySQL that is crawling...

It could be a bug, but we really need a way to repeat it.
Could you try to create a repeatable test case ?

No feedback was provided for this bug for over a month, so it is
being suspended automatically. If you are able to provide the
information that was originally requested, please do so and change
the status of the bug back to "Open".