Process or Stack Limit Exceeded
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## Process or Stack Limit Exceeded

This message indicates that a process has been killed because it's current stack usage has grown too large. The system imposes safety limits to keep the stack at a reasonable size and the process has attempted to grown beyond these limits and has been terminated.

The default stack limit is typically set to 64 MB. The shells (csh, tcsh, ksh) get the default stack size from the kernel variable rlimit_stack_cur, which can be queried with the systune program:

    # systune | grep rlimit_stack_cur
    rlimit_stack_cur = 67108864 (0x4000000) ll
    % limit stacksize
    stacksize       65536 kbytes

Note: 67108864 bytes is 65536 KB which is the default stack size. Also note that the csh and tcsh shells use the command `limit stacksize` but the kcsh shell uses a different command: `ulimit -s`.

The stack size can be changed up to the limit set by the kernel variable rlimit_stack_max

    # systune | grep rlimit_stack_max
    rlimit_stack_max = 536870912 (0x20000000) ll
    % limit stacksize 200M

This increases the amount of memory that the stack can use to 200 MB.

Note: This change only effects processes started from this shell and it's subshells. To make the change permanent, place the above limit command in your.cshrc file for csh and tcsh users, or the.profile file for ksh users.

In almost all cases, changing the shell “stacksize” limit is sufficient and no kernel configuration is needed. The default stacksize is high enough that very few applications will bump into this limit.

If this is not sufficient, you can increase the default stack size for all users on the system by changing the rlimit_stack_cur variable with the systune program:

    # systune -i
    Updates will be made to running system and /unix.install

    systune-> rlimit_stack_cur 134217728
    rlimit_stack_cur = 67108864 (0x4000000) ll
    Do you really want to change rlimit_stack_cur to 134217728 (0x8000000)? (y/n) y

    In order for the change in parameter rlimit_stack_cur to become effective,
    reboot the system

    systune-> quit
    # reboot

For more information on setting the shell's stack limit refer to the man pages for `csh`, `tcsh` and `ksh`. Appendix A of Irix Admin: System Configuration and Operation book describes the system-wide limits and how to change them. It also describes the rlimit_stack_cur and the rlimit_stack_max kernel parameters. Information about the systune program is available from man `systune`.

If you need further assistance, contact your System Administrator or your service provider.

For information on how to configure or disable System Alerts, click here.

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