Rake resque:workers command forks infinite processes - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have a rails project, which uses resque workers, with a Gemfile like this:
source 'https://rubygems.org'
gem 'rails', '3.2.5'
# Bundle edge Rails instead:
# gem 'rails', :git => 'git://github.com/rails/rails.git'
gem 'sqlite3'
gem 'rest-open-uri'
# Gems used only for assets and not required
# in production environments by default.
group :assets do
gem 'sass-rails', '~> 3.2.3'
gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 3.2.1'
# See https://github.com/sstephenson/execjs#readme for more supported runtimes
# gem 'therubyracer', :platforms => :ruby
gem 'therubyracer' # If using Ruby
gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.0.3'
end
gem 'jquery-rails'
gem 'less-rails-bootstrap'
gem 'devise'
gem 'net-http-digest_auth', '1.2.1'
gem "resque", :require => "resque/server"
gem 'carrierwave'
gem 'kaminari'
# To use ActiveModel has_secure_password
# gem 'bcrypt-ruby', '~> 3.0.0'
# To use Jbuilder templates for JSON
# gem 'jbuilder'
# Use unicorn as the app server
# gem 'unicorn'
# Deploy with Capistrano
# gem 'capistrano'
# To use debugger
# gem 'debugger'
After I do a bundle install and try to start some resque workers with the command rake resque:work QUEUE=checker_queue or bundle exec rake resque:work QUEUE=checker_queue my machine stops responding (to anything). When I observe the system with htop I see that rake creates new processes until both memory and swap space of the machine is full (at which point machine becomes unresponsive).
Any ideas regardind the cause of this strange behaviour?
Redis version:
# redis-server -v
Redis server version 2.2.12 (00000000:0)
Ruby version:
# ruby -v
ruby 2.0.0p247 (2013-06-27 revision 41674) [x86_64-linux]
Gemfile.lock:
GEM
remote: https://rubygems.org/
specs:
actionmailer (3.2.15)
actionpack (= 3.2.15)
mail (~> 2.5.4)
actionpack (3.2.15)
activemodel (= 3.2.15)
activesupport (= 3.2.15)
builder (~> 3.0.0)
erubis (~> 2.7.0)
journey (~> 1.0.4)
rack (~> 1.4.5)
rack-cache (~> 1.2)
rack-test (~> 0.6.1)
sprockets (~> 2.2.1)
activemodel (3.2.15)
activesupport (= 3.2.15)
builder (~> 3.0.0)
activerecord (3.2.15)
activemodel (= 3.2.15)
activesupport (= 3.2.15)
arel (~> 3.0.2)
tzinfo (~> 0.3.29)
activeresource (3.2.15)
activemodel (= 3.2.15)
activesupport (= 3.2.15)
activesupport (3.2.15)
i18n (~> 0.6, >= 0.6.4)
multi_json (~> 1.0)
arel (3.0.2)
atomic (1.1.14)
bcrypt-ruby (3.1.2)
builder (3.0.4)
carrierwave (0.9.0)
activemodel (>= 3.2.0)
activesupport (>= 3.2.0)
json (>= 1.7)
coffee-rails (3.2.2)
coffee-script (>= 2.2.0)
railties (~> 3.2.0)
coffee-script (2.2.0)
coffee-script-source
execjs
coffee-script-source (1.6.3)
commonjs (0.2.7)
devise (3.1.1)
bcrypt-ruby (~> 3.0)
orm_adapter (~> 0.1)
railties (>= 3.2.6, < 5)
thread_safe (~> 0.1)
warden (~> 1.2.3)
erubis (2.7.0)
execjs (2.0.2)
hike (1.2.3)
i18n (0.6.5)
journey (1.0.4)
jquery-rails (3.0.4)
railties (>= 3.0, < 5.0)
thor (>= 0.14, < 2.0)
json (1.8.1)
kaminari (0.14.1)
actionpack (>= 3.0.0)
activesupport (>= 3.0.0)
less (2.4.0)
commonjs (~> 0.2.7)
less-rails (2.4.2)
actionpack (>= 3.1)
less (~> 2.4.0)
less-rails-bootstrap (3.0.4)
less-rails (~> 2.4.2)
libv8 (3.16.14.3)
mail (2.5.4)
mime-types (~> 1.16)
treetop (~> 1.4.8)
mime-types (1.25)
mono_logger (1.1.0)
multi_json (1.8.2)
net-http-digest_auth (1.2.1)
orm_adapter (0.4.0)
polyglot (0.3.3)
rack (1.4.5)
rack-cache (1.2)
rack (>= 0.4)
rack-protection (1.5.1)
rack
rack-ssl (1.3.3)
rack
rack-test (0.6.2)
rack (>= 1.0)
rails (3.2.15)
actionmailer (= 3.2.15)
actionpack (= 3.2.15)
activerecord (= 3.2.15)
activeresource (= 3.2.15)
activesupport (= 3.2.15)
bundler (~> 1.0)
railties (= 3.2.15)
railties (3.2.15)
actionpack (= 3.2.15)
activesupport (= 3.2.15)
rack-ssl (~> 1.3.2)
rake (>= 0.8.7)
rdoc (~> 3.4)
thor (>= 0.14.6, < 2.0)
rake (10.1.0)
rdoc (3.12.2)
json (~> 1.4)
redis (3.0.5)
redis-namespace (1.3.2)
redis (~> 3.0.4)
ref (1.0.5)
resque (1.25.1)
mono_logger (~> 1.0)
multi_json (~> 1.0)
redis-namespace (~> 1.2)
sinatra (>= 0.9.2)
vegas (~> 0.1.2)
rest-open-uri (1.0.0)
sass (3.2.12)
sass-rails (3.2.6)
railties (~> 3.2.0)
sass (>= 3.1.10)
tilt (~> 1.3)
sinatra (1.4.4)
rack (~> 1.4)
rack-protection (~> 1.4)
tilt (~> 1.3, >= 1.3.4)
sprockets (2.2.2)
hike (~> 1.2)
multi_json (~> 1.0)
rack (~> 1.0)
tilt (~> 1.1, != 1.3.0)
sqlite3 (1.3.8)
therubyracer (0.12.0)
libv8 (~> 3.16.14.0)
ref
thor (0.18.1)
thread_safe (0.1.3)
atomic
tilt (1.4.1)
treetop (1.4.15)
polyglot
polyglot (>= 0.3.1)
tzinfo (0.3.38)
uglifier (2.3.0)
execjs (>= 0.3.0)
json (>= 1.8.0)
vegas (0.1.11)
rack (>= 1.0.0)
warden (1.2.3)
rack (>= 1.0)
PLATFORMS
ruby
DEPENDENCIES
carrierwave
coffee-rails (~> 3.2.1)
devise
jquery-rails
kaminari
less-rails-bootstrap
net-http-digest_auth (= 1.2.1)
rails (= 3.2.15)
resque
rest-open-uri
sass-rails (~> 3.2.3)
sqlite3
therubyracer
uglifier (>= 1.0.3)

Answer 1

Maybe there is a bug in app code that schedules resque jobs or maybe there are lots of jobs pending or maybe the problem lies in the task itself. In any case also try to inspect resque status:
Resque.info
Resque.size :medium
Maybe it will help identify the problem