Parameter list too Long

[KapilRaj]

Is there a limit to the Number of Exported variables in a shell ?.

kaps

[Stefan Farrelly]

I dont think there is a limit but the error "Parameter list too long" is usually because you have too many arguments on a single command line. Piping it through xargs fixes it.

[Steve Steel]

Hi


depends on the OS version.

which are you using.

see

http://bizforums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x9e5fc1c4ceddd61190050090279cd0f9,00.html

Steve Steel

[Balaji N]

no, i dont think there is a limit for the no of exported variables in a shell.


but your problem, seems like u are exceeding the maximum length of the command line argument passed on a shell.

hth
-balaji

[KapilRaj]

Will try and get back to you.

kaps

[Mike Stroyan]

The system limits the total bytes of data for environment and arguments. Individual shells and other programs may have their own limits on how many environment variables they can handle.

From "man sysconf"
ARG_MAX _SC_ARG_MAX
Maximum total length of the arguments for exec() in bytes, including environment data (see exec(2))

From "man exec"
If exec*() fails and returns to the calling program,
errno is set to one of the following values:

[E2BIG]
The number of bytes in the new program's
argument list plus environment is greater
than the system-imposed limit. This limit is
at least 5120 bytes on HP-UX systems.

The limit on 11.00 and on patched 10.20 is 2000K bytes.

[James A. Donovan]

Following may be of some use: from /usr/include/limits.h on 11.0

#if defined(_INCLUDE_POSIX_SOURCE) || defined(_INCLUDE_POSIX2_SOURCE)
# define _POSIX_ARG_MAX 4096 /* The length of the arguments for
one of the exec functions in bytes,
including environment data. */

also...

# if defined(_XPG2) || defined(_SVID3) || defined(_XPG4_EXTENDED)
/*
* The following limits are not actually invariant, but are configurable.
* The correct values can be determined using the sysconf() function.
* The default values are provided here because the constants are specified
* by several publications including XPG (X/Open Portability Guide) Issue 2
* and SVID (System V Interface Definition) Issue 2.
*/
# define ARG_MAX 2048000 /* Maximum length of arguments for the
exec function in bytes, including
environment data */