High CPU usage for single stream

[CRCinAU]

Hi all,

I'm trying to figure out why motion has recently started using tons of CPU on my system. The CPU is a Ryzen 7 2700x - and running the docker version of Motion in a VM with 4 CPU cores.

It looks like the docker version is:

[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Motion 4.3.1+git20201219-9d8d01b Started

Output of top:

Config:

############################################################
# System control configuration parameters
############################################################

# Start in daemon (background) mode and release terminal.
daemon off

# Start in Setup-Mode, daemon disabled.
setup_mode off

# Level of log messages [1..9] (EMG, ALR, CRT, ERR, WRN, NTC, INF, DBG, ALL).
log_level 7

############################################################
# Motion detection configuration parameters
############################################################

# Always save pictures and movies even if there was no motion.
emulate_motion off

# Threshold for number of changed pixels that triggers motion.
threshold 1500

# Noise threshold for the motion detection.
; noise_level 32

# Despeckle the image using (E/e)rode or (D/d)ilate or (l)abel.
despeckle_filter EedDl

############################################################
# Picture output configuration parameters
############################################################

# Output pictures when motion is detected
picture_output off

############################################################
# Movie output configuration parameters
############################################################

# Create movies of motion events.
movie_output off

############################################################
# Webcontrol configuration parameters
############################################################

# Port number used for the webcontrol.
webcontrol_port 8000

# Restrict webcontrol connections to the localhost.
webcontrol_localhost off

# Type of configuration options to allow via the webcontrol.
webcontrol_parms 2

############################################################
# Live stream configuration parameters
############################################################

# The port number for the live stream.
stream_port 8001

# Restrict stream connections to the localhost.
stream_localhost off

##############################################################
# Directory to read '.conf' files for cameras.
##############################################################
camera_dir /usr/local/etc/motion/conf.d

The camera definition in conf.d/front_door.conf:

# User defined name for the camera.
camera_name Front Door

# Numeric identifier for the camera.
camera_id 1

# The full URL of the network camera stream.
netcam_url rtmp://172.31.1.245/bcs/channel0_main.bcs?token=asdfadf&channel=0&stream=0&user=username&password=password
capture_rate 10

# Set the incoming video size. Should match the source resolution.
width 2560
height 1920

## Overlay Text:
text_changes off
text_left
text_right

# The scale at which to draw text over the image. The recommended range is 1 - 10.
# This option makes the text defined by text_left, text_right and text_changes drawn at
# n-times the normal size. This may be useful when using large picture formats such as 1280 x 720.
# Range / Valid values: 1 - 10
text_scale 6

# Maximum number of frames to be captured from the camera per second. The faster you
# fetch pictures from the camera the more CPU load you get and the more pictures get
# included when Motion is detected. Motion will stop storing pictures if the framerate
# is set to less than 2. Set this parameter to the maximum number of images per second
# that you want to store either as images or movies. To set intervals longer than one
# second use the 'minimum_frame_time' option instead.
framerate 10

# Limit the framerate of the stream in frames per second. Set the value to 100 for
# practically unlimited. Don't set this parameter too high unless you only use it on
# the localhost or on an internal LAN.
stream_maxrate 10

# Limit the framerate to 1 frame per second when there is no motion being detected
# and increase it to the stream_maxrate when there is motion.
stream_motion on

# Quality setting in percent for the jpeg picture frames transferred over the live stream
# connection. When it is set to a low number, it will lower the bandwidth required to stream
# the images.
# Range / Valid values: 1 - 100
stream_quality 50

# Locate and draw a box around the moving object. Value 'preview' makes Motion only
# draw a box on a saved preview jpeg image and not on the saved movie.
# Range / Valid values: on, off, preview
locate_motion_mode off

# Set the look and style of the locate box if enabled.
# Range / Valid values: box, redbox, cross, redcross
locate_motion_style redbox

# Activate the automatic tuning of threshold level. This feature makes Motion continuously
# adjust the threshold for declaring motion. The threshold setting is ignored when activating
# this feature. It may give different results depending on your camera, light conditions,
# indoor/outdoor, the motion to be detected etc. If it does not work well, deactivate the
# 'threshold_tune' option and use the manual setting of threshold instead.
# Range / Valid values: on, off
threshold_tune on

# Picture frames must contain motion at least the specified number of frames in a row before they
# are detected as true motion. At the default of 1, all motion is detected. Valid range is 1 to
# thousands, but it is recommended to keep it within 1-5. Note that the picture frames are buffered
# by Motion and once motion is detected also the first frames containing motion are saved so you
# will not miss anything. The feature is used when you get many false detections when the camera
# changes light sensitivity or light changes. Even though Motion accepts large values you should
# set this to a relatively low number (below 10). For each step larger than 1 Motion reserves space
# in RAM for the picture frame buffer. If you have a large value Motion will miss many frames from
# the camera while it is processing the all the pictures in the buffer.
# Range / Valid values: 1 - 1000s
minimum_motion_frames 2

# https://motion-project.github.io/motion_config.html#smart_mask_speed
smart_mask_speed 4

# The number of seconds of no motion detected that triggers the end of an event. An event is
# defined as a series of motion images taken within a short timeframe. An event ends right after
# no more motion is detected and post_capture is over.
event_gap 15

on_event_start	/usr/local/etc/motion/nodered-cam1-on.sh
on_event_end	/usr/local/etc/motion/nodered-cam1-off.sh

It almost looks like at extra thread is spawned for each event start / stop - which just continues to spin CPU usage.

The on_event_(start|stop).sh scripts are a single curl command to trigger a web endpoint in NodeRed.

ie:

#!/bin/sh
curl -s --output /dev/null http://nodered:1880/motion/1/off

[CRCinAU]

Oh - if I comment out the on_event_start and on_event_stop lines in the camera config file, then motion behaves itself with only a single thread running at ~20-35% CPU - even with captures being taken via nodered.