This is what I got with:
bash --version
GNU bash, version 2.05.9(1)-release (i686-redhat-linux-gnu)
Copyright 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
su --version
su (GNU sh-utils) 2.0
Written by David MacKenzie.
[frank@behemoth frank]$ time su `perl -e 'print "A" x 100000000'`
bash: /bin/su: Argument list too long
real 1m20.578s
user 0m52.170s
sys 0m17.470s
The bash process had grown to 415 MB, and stays about the same size:
[frank@behemoth frank]$ ps u 2085
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
frank 2085 5.5 55.0 526884 425400 pts/5 S 22:28 2:35 bash
So, this is not a su issue. I get the same results with e.g. /usr/bin/yes:
[frank@behemoth frank]$ time yes `perl -e 'print "A" x 100000000'`
bash: /usr/bin/yes: Argument list too long
real 1m3.431s
user 0m51.760s
sys 0m12.170s
It doesn't really matter which program you try to start this way, as the
program never gets a chance to run:
[frank@behemoth frank]$ time ls `perl -e 'print "A" x 100000000'`
bash: /bin/ls: Argument list too long
real 1m3.835s
user 0m51.820s
sys 0m14.700s
Other shells react more or less the same:
tcsh 6.08.00: reacts almost immediately with Word too long for ls
> time ls `perl -e 'print "A" x 100000000'`
Word too long.
0.010u 0.000s 0:01.51 0.6% 0+0k 0+0io 0pf+0w
zsh 3.0.5: takes a long time, grows to 520 MB, but then comes back with
argument list too long for ls
behemoth% time ls `perl -e 'print "A" x 100000000'`
zsh: argument list too long: ls
ls 196.96s user 5.61s system 98% cpu 3:25.83 total
ash 0.2: interesting, gives argument list too long for time, not ls
$ time ls `perl -e 'print "A" x 100000000'`
time: argument list too long
pdksh 5.2.14: same idea...
[\u@\h \W]$ time ls `perl -e 'print "A" x 100000000'`
ksh: ls: Argument list too long
16.96s real 12.31s user 2.70s system
This all on a 2x466 Celeron with 768 MB and 500 MB swap
Cheers//Frank
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Dec 13 2001 - 16:56:19 PST