Excessive memory usage and system crash when repeatedly opening/closing large log files

[NoobforAl]

Summary

Opening and closing large log files causes memory usage to grow until system crash

Description

When I open and close a large log file (around 100 MB, e.g., a sample BGL log file), Zed continuously increases its memory usage with each cycle. Eventually, this leads to the entire system becoming unresponsive or crashing due to exhaustion of RAM. This behavior does not happen with small log files, only with large ones.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open a large log file (e.g., ~100 MB BGL log)
2. Close the file
3. Repeat steps 1–2 several times
4. Observe increasing memory usage and eventual system crash

Expected Behavior:
Memory usage should be released after closing the file, and the system should remain stable.

Actual Behavior:
Memory usage grows with each open/close cycle and is never released, eventually leading to a system crash.

test.mp4

Zed Version and System Specs

OS: Ubuntu-22
ZED: 0.182.11

[GraphtyLove]

I have the same issue without opening big files. It happens when working on large mono repo.

[RyanBalfanz]

Zed crashed for me when opening a large file as well.

To make matters worse, attempts to reopen Zed will also fail because the file will still be loaded, causing a crash loop that takes some effort to exit. On reopen, the UI is frozen, so any attempt to close the offending file is blocked, causing the subsequent crashes.

[RyanBalfanz]

Zed crashed for me when opening a large file as well.

To make matters worse, attempts to reopen Zed will also fail because the file will still be loaded, causing a crash loop that takes some effort to exit. On reopen, the UI is frozen, so any attempt to close the offending file is blocked, causing the subsequent crashes.

I filed this separately as a proper Crash over at #29804