From: "Tim Van Holder" <tim DOT van DOT holder AT pandora DOT be>
To: <djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com>
Cc: <snowball3 AT softhome DOT net>
Subject: Re: Possible bash issue
Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 01:30:14 +0200
Message-ID: <CAEGKOHJKAAFPKOCLHDIAEGBCDAA.tim.van.holder@pandora.be>
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> > Also, isn't the transfer buffer supposed to be an upper limit to
> > the number of arguments, or is that only when invoking DOS apps?
> 
> Yes, the transfer buffer (minus the size of the environment) is the
> limit when invoking DJGPP programs (DOS programs have their usual
> 126-char limit).  But IIRC there's one exception: when Bash invokes
> Bash (or some other Unixy shell).  I think if you step through the
> code, you will see that Bash calls `system' (perhaps via `popen'), and
> `system' invokes Unixy shells via a disk file, like this:
> 
> 	 sh disk-file
> 
> where disk-file holds the entire command line.  Clearly, when invoked
> like this, the sky is the limit ;-)
Hmm - that explains the extreme slowdown :-)  Doesn't explain why bash
would crash though (unless it freaks out if given a huge disk file as
input - it doesn't pull it all into memory, does it?)

> In other words, to be effective, this test should invoke some other
> DJGPP program, not a shell.  (But perhaps someone should actually step
But what external program could you call (portably!) that would still
allow such a deduction to be made?  I think I'll just lower the loop
limit and be done with it.  I don't think anything bad will come from
saying DJGPP is limited to 18K worth of command line.