Malloc Problems with DECstation 5000/200

[Philip Y. de Louraille]

In article <3853 at ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP>, ian at ssc-vax.UUCP (Ian R. Searle) writes:
> Has anybody out there been having malloc problems on a DECstation
> 5000/200? We have 32 Meg of RAM, and 150+ swap, output from
> 
> We are having troubles getting a single process to malloc more than
> 60 Mbytes, we can get the same program running in separate windows
> to malloc over 120 Mbytes, but a single instance of the program
> cannot seem to grab more than about 60 Mbytes. The simple test
> 
> Thanks in advance, Ian Searle

Well, Ian, first type limit in your csh, what do you get for the datasize parameter?

The problem that you have is that there is a maximum size for the datasize. It is defaulted to 64 Meg for the 5000.

In /sys/conf/mips/HOSTNAME, add or change the parameter "maxdsiz" followed by a number in Megabytes and rebuilt the kernel.
For a datasize of 120 Meg, you should have
maxdsiz 120.

After rebuilding the kernel and rebooting, type limit and unlimit to push (for that csh) all limits to their max sizes.
That should do it. (typing unlimit should not be necessary, unless your .cshrc sets some limits for you.
Ha!, do not set your maxdsiz bigger than your swap space! Hell may break loose!
-- 
  Philip Yzarn de Louraille                 Internet: jpyll at chevron.com
  Research Support Division                 Unix & Open Systems
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