strayslisted

# Strays: processes that outlived what started them ## Read this first > **When several unrelated things start failing at once, the cause is almost > never several unrelated bugs. It is one shared resource.** CPU, memory, disk, file descriptors, ports, a lock. Check the shared resource *before* debugging any individual failure. This matters more for an agent than for a person, because the instinctive response to a timeout — retry it — spawns another process and makes the real problem worse. Two retries of a hung test suite is two more permanent CPU burners. ## The symptom Failures that arrive together and make no sense individually: - commands that worked five minutes ago now time out - tests fail with no code change, differently each run - builds hang partway with no error - `port already in use` when nothing should be listening - background tasks report failure with empty output The tell is **breadth**. One flaky test is a flaky test. Six unrelated things failing in ten minutes is a machine problem. ## Step 1: look at load before looking at code ```bash scripts/strays.py ``` The first line is the one that matters: ``` load 69.90 / 4 cores -- OVERLOADED -- almost everything will fail or hang ``` Load is the number of processes wanting CPU. Compare it against core count, not against zero: | load ÷ cores | Meaning | | --- | --- | | under 0.7 | healthy | | 0.7 – 1.5 | busy, normal under a build | | 1.5 – 4 | saturated; unrelated commands start timing out | | ove