[X-Unix] what the fork?

[William H. Magill]

On 09 Aug, 2004, at 15:03, Victor Eijkhout wrote:
> Trying to install some big package (lots of compiles):
>
> /bin/sh: fork: Resource temporarily unavailable
> /bin/sh: fork: Resource temporarily unavailable
> /bin/sh: fork: Resource temporarily unavailable

It's a Kernel limit.

The problem usually has to do with the defaults for the number of 
processes which any single uid may have (or even the system). 
[Nominally - "maxprocperuser"]

I don't know in Darwin, but in most Unix versions, these are NOT 
dynamic numbers but are normally set  when the kernel is built. 
However, because most Unix systems are optimized for multi-user time 
sharing, and not for "scientific" work or even heavy duty programming, 
the limits are frequently encountered doing exactly what you are trying 
to do -- install some large package.

There is nothing wrong.  The Kernel is just doing what it was told to 
do.

It looks like in Darwin, the parameter involved might be NPIDS (maximum 
number of PIDs per process) which is set to 16. But I'm not 
particularly conversant with the kernel.

In some Unix versions these can be modified via /etc/sysconfigtab.


T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
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