Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: tar -r on a diskfile/tar arg too long
Keywords: tar -r on disk file
Message-ID: <3483@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 15 Jun 90 18:29:58 GMT
References: <1342@ziggy.EDU> <3474@auspex.auspex.com> <1650@charon.cwi.nl>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 19


 > >                                   although the 4.x C shell can't cope with
 > > an argument list that big (the Bourne shell doesn't have quite the same
 > > problem).
 >
 >Similar observations apply to Silicon Graphics version of Unix.
 >A humble guess:  the C shell has a hardwired limit somewhere deep in the
 >sources (a common feature of Unix utilities).

I don't know what happend when (as I infer from your message) SGI
boosted the max arg list size, but the problem in SunOS is that the C
shell has an array of pointers into the arglist, sized proportionally to
NCARGS, that it sticks on the stack.

Unfortunately, if NCARGS is very large, this creates a humongous array
on the stack, which caused some problems.  The *correct* fix is to
dynamically allocate this array dynamically; the *expedient* fix, given
the C shell's internal messiness, was to build in a smaller fixed size
for the array, based on the old value of NCARGS.