Stack exceeds maximum size

[rajanandhini]

Hi,

I get the "Memory Fault" error when running an executable. I dont see any core dump but the program aborts. When explored using GDB, we get the following error.

Pid 18574 received a SIGSEGV for stack growth failure.
Possible causes: insufficient memory or swap space,
or stack size exceeded maxssiz.

Please help me.

Thanks,
nan

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

Increase the parameters in the kernel maxssiz maxdsiz

If the program is 64 bit then maxssiz_64 and maxdsiz_64

Can be done with sam or kmtune/kctune depending on your actual OS, which you do not reveal to us.

Requires root access.

SEP

[Dennis Handly]

Before you go as far as increasing maxssiz, you should make sure you are not in an infinite recursive loop. I.e. in gdb look at a stack trace, bt.

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

If your maxssiz is set to the default (8MiB) then it may need to be increased; however, only in extremely rare cases does it ever need to exceed 32MiB --- even in 64-bit land. The only time I have ever seen a legitimate need to increase maxssiz beyond 32 MIB was in some code that linked in some FORTRAN libraries but otherwise only extremely poorly written code needs a large stack. The suggestion to examine the stack trace is a good one because you may be entering extremely deep recursion as a result of some data condition. If not then if large stacks are needed the answer is to fix the code rather than increasing maxssiz to ludicrous levels.