From: Daniel Barker <sokal AT holyrood DOT ed DOT ac DOT uk>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Does Windows 98 lose DMPI descriptors?
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 18:22:12 +0000
Organization: Edinburgh University
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

In the DJGPP FAQ I read about problems with some versions of Windows
losing DMPI descriptors, causing a program which spawns many other DJGPP
programs to eventually crash in the attempt.

This would have bad implications for my plan to program mainly using GNU
tools (GAWK, SORT, WC, etc.) wired together by BASH. So I ran this test
BASH script, to see if and when the problem would kick in: 

	i=0
	while true
	do
	i=`expr $i + 1`
	echo $i
	done

i had been incremented to over 45000 by the time I had to kill the program
so I could install something. The BASH script ran slowly and caused many
page faults, presumably since it involves many program launches, but did
not crash during this whole time. BASH, EXPR and TRUE all were DJGPP ports
of GNU programs, recently downloaded. 

So, is the problem absent with Windows 98? Or was this a poor test? Does
the problem still exist with other modern versions of Windows? 

Thanks for any information. 


Daniel Barker,
Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology,
Swann Building,
King's Buildings,
Mayfield Road,
Edinburgh
EH9 3JR
UK