# ERROR! A worker was found in a dead state

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-a-worker-was-found-in-a-dead-state/33706>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [August 31, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-a-worker-was-found-in-a-dead-state/33706 "2020-08-31T17:41:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Guy\_Matz1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5e925/32.png) [@Guy\_Matz1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Guy_Matz1)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-a-worker-was-found-in-a-dead-state/33706/1 "2020-08-31T17:41:18Z")

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Hi! I have a task which ends simply with:

\< TASK [pomerium : Put config file in place] \>

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**Author:** ![jborean](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/jborean/32/1525_2.png) [@jborean](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jborean)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-a-worker-was-found-in-a-dead-state/33706/2 "2020-08-31T20:35:30Z")

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Looks like you are running on macOS based on the paths in your ansible-playbook --version output. There is a known problem with running Ansible on macOS [1] where certain system calls on the forked Ansible process cause the process to get killed by the kernel. This is a pretty fundamental issue in how Ansible creates the forked processes and how macOS treats those processes. There’s not much we can do right for a fix but setting the env var ‘OBJC\_DISABLE\_INITIALIZE\_FORK\_SAFETY=yes’ may “fix” the problem for now. There are cases where even this env var won’t work but it’s worth a try.

[1] - [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/32554](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/32554)

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**Author:** ![Spiro\_Mitsialis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c57346/32.png) [@Spiro\_Mitsialis](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Spiro_Mitsialis)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-a-worker-was-found-in-a-dead-state/33706/3 "2020-09-01T16:53:07Z")

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I got the error a few weeks ago. Turned out the server was running out of memory.