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From: steve@warwick.UUCP (Steve Rumsby)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Hard Disk Problem ( and some more bugs )
Message-ID: <414@euclid.warwick.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Mar-87 12:50:19 EST
Article-I.D.: euclid.414
Posted: Mon Mar  9 12:50:19 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Mar-87 18:37:34 EST
References: <496@ubu.warwick.UUCP>
Reply-To: steve@euclid.UUCP (Steve Rumsby)
Organization: Maths Institute, Warwick University, UK
Lines: 54
In-Reply-To: <2371@felix.UUCP>

Cc:


In article <2371@felix.UUCP> you write:
>In article <496@ubu.warwick.UUCP> arthur@ubu.UUCP (John Vaudin) writes:
>>
>>2) If the argument list to a program gets too long the shell complains
>>that it cannot excecute the program. I understand that exec is meant to
>>return some error status telling it that the arg list was too big. I guess
>>this is a kernel problem(?)
>
>This is a design limitation.  If I remember correctly,
>there is a buffer in one of the routines in the memory
>manager called by do_exec() which is large enough to
>contain the initial stack for a new program.  Since the
>command line and the environment are pushed onto the stack,
>I am not surprised that you overflowed the buffer.  When
>this happens, the exec() fails.
>
>There is a single constant to change in one of the MM's
>header files and then recompile.  That should solve your
>problem at the expense of a slightly larger MM task.
>

Not quite. Perhaps the description of the problem was not clear enough. The
exec call doesn't return the appropriate error code. The shell code checks
the appropriate thing, and works correctly on a real unix system. Under
minix, however, something strange happens - can't remember what as I was
only briefly shown the bug. How about a reminder John?

					Steve.

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_______________________________________________________________________________
|UUCP:	 ...!ukc!warwick!steve			| Steve Rumsby		      |
|JANET:	 steve@uk.ac.warwick.maths		| Maths Institute	      |
|ARPA:	 steve%uk.ac.warwick.maths@ucl-cs.ARPA	| University of Warwick	      |
|BITNET: steve%uk.ac.warwick.maths@UK.AC	| Coventry		      |
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|PHONE:	 +44 203 523523 x2657			| ENGLAND		      |
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"For every problem there is one solution which is simple, neat, and wrong."
								-- H. L. Menken