From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 20787 invoked from network); 3 Jun 1999 04:13:34 -0000 Received: from sunsite.auc.dk (130.225.51.30) by ns1.primenet.com.au with SMTP; 3 Jun 1999 04:13:34 -0000 Received: (qmail 4676 invoked by alias); 3 Jun 1999 04:13:30 -0000 Mailing-List: contact zsh-workers-help@sunsite.auc.dk; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk X-No-Archive: yes X-Seq: 6444 Received: (qmail 4669 invoked from network); 3 Jun 1999 04:13:28 -0000 From: "Bart Schaefer" Message-Id: <990603041318.ZM2604@candle.brasslantern.com> Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 04:13:18 +0000 In-Reply-To: <199906030250.TAA19950@news.idiom.com> Comments: In reply to Nik Gervae "export limit in zsh and other shells?" (Jun 2, 7:49pm) References: <199906030250.TAA19950@news.idiom.com> In-Reply-To: Comments: In reply to mason@primenet.com.au (Geoff Wing) "Re: export limit in zsh and other shells?" (Jun 3, 3:43am) X-Mailer: Z-Mail (5.0.0 30July97) To: Nik Gervae , zsh-workers@sunsite.auc.dk Subject: Re: export limit in zsh and other shells? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii On Jun 2, 7:49pm, Nik Gervae wrote: } Subject: export limit in zsh and other shells? } } Here at PDI we use a TON of environment variables to control many aspects of } our animation jobs. Just today a user came to me complaining that when he } loaded *all* of these variables into his zsh session he got output like } this: } } % ls } zsh: arg list too long: ls On Jun 3, 3:43am, Geoff Wing wrote: } Subject: Re: export limit in zsh and other shells? } } And all the shells spew out the same message. It's an operating system } limit on argument lists. } } % sysctl kern.argmax } kern.argmax = 262144 } which is described as "The maximum bytes of argument to execve(2)." The important point to note here is that "argument to execve(2)" includes both the `argv' and `envp' arrays. Although passed to execve() as two pointers (char*[]), when the kernel prepares a new process image for execution it copies the entirety of both arrays into a contiguous chunk of memory. The `argmax' kernel parameter in Geoff's example sets the size of that chunk. In short, you may have to find a different way to control your animations. -- Bart Schaefer Brass Lantern Enterprises http://www.well.com/user/barts http://www.brasslantern.com