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From: mouse@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (der Mouse)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.internals
Subject: Re: Arg list too big
Keywords: execve shell Too big
Message-ID: <1991Mar15.094911.13334@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>
Date: 15 Mar 91 09:49:11 GMT
References: <805@essnj1.ESSNJAY.COM>
Organization: McGill Research Centre for Intelligent Machines
Lines: 25

In article <805@essnj1.ESSNJAY.COM>, smitty@essnj1.ESSNJAY.COM (Hibbard T. Smith JR) writes:
>   ../.././util/makedepend/makedepend -s "# DO NOT DELETE #" -I../../. -I. -- *.c

> 	sh: ../.././util/makedepend/makedepend: arg list too long

> I know that the exec system calls can only pass 5120 (10240) bytes.
> This argument is only *.c when passed by the exec.

The exec make does, yes.  On the other hand, when sh goes to exec
../.././util/makedepend/makedepend, it has to pass the whole list of
filenames to it.

> When is the *.c expanded?  Before or after it gets to the shell?  I
> thought the shell did the expansion, in which case the argument list
> to the shell is only *.c.

Right.  Make passes the whole line to sh.  sh then has to expand the
*.c and pass the result to makedepend.  I feel certain the complaint is
produced at this point.

					der Mouse

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