sqlplus memory leak?

We use many linux shell scripts requesting data from our (Oracle 8i enterprise 8.1.7.4.0 running on Redhat 7.1) database. Many scripts use sqlplus to connect to the db.
When these scripts are used intensively we observe a steady growing of the memory usage until the point that the swap daemon consumes all the CPU capacity.
Anyone who can shed some light on this?

The problem can be isolated by running the following shell script:

ii=1
while [ $ii -lt 1000000 ]
do
  sqlplus scott/tiger <</
  select 1 + 1 from dual
  quit
/
ii=`expr $ii + 1`
done Received on Wed Jun 25 2003 - 07:48:43 CDT