Re: grep argument list too long...how to get around it?

From: Steve Grazzini (grazz_at_pobox.com)
Date: 10/10/03 

Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 12:28:54 -0400
To: Kevin Old <kold@kold.homelinux.com>

On Fri, Oct 10, 2003 at 12:37:02PM -0400, Kevin Old wrote:
> On Fri, 2003-10-10 at 11:46, Steve Grazzini wrote:
> > No. (It's ARG_MAX...)
>
> I'm running Mandrake 9.0 and my ARG_MAX is not set, so is it
> "unlimited"? If not, what is the default?

It's not an environment variable. (Check limits.h.)

And remember, that's not the *number* of files/arguments/whatever.
ARG_MAX is the total *memory* that can be used for a new process's
environment and argument list.

    % export FOO=$( perl -le 'print "x" x 2**17' )
    % ls
    bash: /bin/ls: Argument list too long 

-- 
Steve