maximum number of arguments Post: 302247416

Sponsored Content

Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers maximum number of arguments Post 302247416 by s.mascheck on Wednesday 15th of October 2008 05:03:27 PM

10-15-2008

Registered User

Quote:

Originally Posted by matrixmadhan

What is the maximum number of arguments that could be passed to zsh ?
To find out that I tried a simple script.
And the maximum number of arguments that could be passed turned out to be 23394

Code:

 ...
subIndex=23000
while [ $i -le $subIndex ]
do
  arg=$arg" "$i
  i=$(($i + 1))
done ...

Am not sure whether this approach is current or not.

(Earlier postings here suggested, that you missed to count your environment. But that is not a plausible explanation for the huge difference .)

Your approach has this flaw: It hits the maximum length of args, not the maximum number, because in average your arguments are too long!

The maximum length on Linux-pre-2.6.23 is 131072.
Your environment is about 2k. Now estimate the length of all your args:
About 9 single digit args (1..9) (each with a trailing ASCII-NUL, add one for the length),
about 90 double digit args (10..99), round numbers are easier,
and so on:

Code:

$ bc
9*2 + 90*3 + 900*4 + 9000*5 + 13394*6    + 2000
131252

This is almost identical to the expected limit.

You will only hit the maximum number of arguments (on Linux-pre-2.6.23) if the average length is at most 4.

Last edited by s.mascheck; 10-16-2008 at 04:59 PM.. Reason: wrong code tags around calculation fixed

s.mascheck

View Public Profile for s.mascheck

Find all posts by s.mascheck

9 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Maximum number of threads per user

Anybody knows how to setup Maximum number of threads per user or some other value on Sun Solaris 8.

2. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Maximum number of users allowed

How do i determen (what command) the max. number of users allowed Thanks in advance

3. Programming

maximum number of dots in a domain name

maximum number of dots in a domain name - not a sub-domain name. for example: mydomain.com ------ one dot mydomain.com.au ------ two dots do you know maximum number of dots in a domain name and could you provide a sample? thx.

4. Solaris

Maximum Number of threads suuported????

Hi, Anybody knows the maximum number of threads suuported by a process in solaris os. Please reply Thanks in advance :(

5. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

ls - maximum number of files

what is the maximum number ls can list down

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

Maximum number of characters in a line.

Hi, Could any one please let me know what is the maximum number of characters that will fit into a single line of a flat file on a unix. Thanks.

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

Maximum command line arguments

Hi, Can anyone please help me to know what is the maximum number of command line arguments that we can pass in unix shell script? Thanks in advance, Punitha.S

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

Maximum number from input by user

I am trying to calculate the maximum number from four numbers input by the user. I have the following code, but it does not work. It says there's an error with the last line "done". Any help would be appreciated. max=0 echo "Please enter four numbers: " for i in 1 2 3 4 do read number...

9. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Maximum number of sed squeezing

Hi all, What is the maximum number of sed squeezing in one shell?? I've surprised with this message when I squeezed 50 sed in the same shell: 253: Identifier too long - maximum length is 18.This is what I've did in my sed query | sed -e "s/ 0 /Default /" | sed -e "s/ 1 ...

LEARN ABOUT BSD

xargs

XARGS(1)						      General Commands Manual							  XARGS(1)

NAME

       xargs - construct argument list(s) and execute utility

SYNOPSIS

       xargs [ -t ][[ -x ] -n number ][ -s size ][ utility [ arguments...  ]]

DESCRIPTION

       The  xargs utility reads space, tab, newline and end-of-file delimited arguments from the standard input and executes the specified utility
       with them as arguments.

       The utility and any arguments specified on the command line are given to the utility upon each invocation, followed by some number  of  the
       arguments read from standard input.  The utility is repeatedly executed until standard input is exhausted.

       Spaces,	tabs  and  newlines  may  be embedded in arguments using single (`` ' '') or double (``"'') quotes or backslashes (``'').  Single
       quotes escape all non-single quote characters, excluding newlines, up to the matching single quote.  Double quotes  escape  all	non-double
       quote characters, excluding newlines, up to the matching double quote.  Any single character, including newlines, may be escaped by a back-
       slash.

       The options are as follows:

       -n number Set the maximum number of arguments taken from standard input for each invocation of the utility.  An invocation of utility  will
		 use less than number standard input arguments if the number of bytes accumulated (see the s option) exceeds the specified size or
		 there are fewer than number arguments remaining for the last invocation of utility.  The current  default  value  for	number	is
		 5000.

       -s size	 Set  the  maximum number of bytes for the command line length provided to utility.  The sum of the length of the utility name and
		 the arguments passed to utility (including /dev/null terminators) will be less than or equal to this number.  The current default
		 value for size is ARG_MAX - 2048.

       -t	 Echo the command to be executed to standard error immediately before it is executed.

       -x	 Force	xargs  to  terminate  immediately if a command line containing number arguments will not fit in the specified (or default)
		 command line length.

       If no utility is specified, echo(1) is used.

       Undefined behavior may occur if utility reads from the standard input.

       The xargs utility exits immediately (without processing any further input) if a	command  line  cannot  be  assembled,  utility	cannot	be
       invoked, an invocation of the utility is terminated by a signal or an invocation of the utility exits with a value of 255.

       The xargs utility exits with a value of 0 if no error occurs.  If utility cannot be invoked, xargs exits with a value of 127.  If any other
       error occurs, xargs exits with a value of 1.

SEE ALSO

       echo(1), find(1)

STANDARDS

       The xargs utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2("POSIX") compliant.

								   June 6, 1993 							  XARGS(1)