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Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1996 15:23:57 -0800 (PST)
From: Doug White <dwhite@gdi.uoregon.edu>
Reply-To: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu
To: Gary Kline <kline@tera.com>
cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: multi-media app runs out of forking capabilities
In-Reply-To: <199612262106.NAA10833@athena.tera.com>
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On Thu, 26 Dec 1996, Gary Kline wrote:

>   I didn't think that this would stall my devlopment, but
>   it has.  Before I upgraded to 32MB of memory I sometimes
>   would get a ``Can't fork'' error from the kernel.  I 
>   thought that having 32 megs would automagically resolve
>   this problems, but no such luck.

It depends on what causes the error.  I highly doubt it's out of memory.

> 
>   Now I'm writing a multi-media app that does many forks
>   to spawn and kill ancillary processes, and I am getting
>   the same `can'tt fork' messages.
> 
>   My zsh used to  allow ulimit -p <N> where N could be 
>   large.  The number of processes currently defaults to 
>   just 40.  No longer.
> 
>   Q1:  What's the quick fix, if there is one for the 2.1.5 
>   kernel?

Try 'ulimit' with no options.  Under sh and csh, it unlocks all the
resource restrictions.

>   Q2:  What and where can I set the default and rebuild
>   my kernel so that I have an unlimited or large (say 200)
>   procs?

I don't think this is a kernel issue.

>   Q3:  What code can I build in to my application to let
>   it do all the forks it needs to? and will this require 
>   the application to run suid?

Can't say.

Doug White                              | University of Oregon  
Internet:  dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu    | Residence Networking Assistant
http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite    | Computer Science Major