Re: execve manpage changes

[Michael Kerrisk <mtk-manpages@gmx.net>]

Ollie Wild wrote:
> Michael,
> 
> Per our previous discussion, here are the updates to the execve(2)
> manpage resulting from the variable length argument support patch in
> linux-2.6.23-rc1.  The execve API is unmodified.  However, the
> following should be noted in the "Notes" section.
> 
> Prior to linux-2.6.23, the memory used to store the environment and
> argument list strings was limited to 32 (MAX_ARG_PAGES) pages.  On
> most architectures, the page size is 4kB, leading to a maximum size of
> 128kB.
> 
> In linux-2.6.23 and later, most architectures support a size limit
> derived from the current RLIMIT_STACK setting (see getrlimit(2)).  For
> these architectures, the total size is limited to 1/4 the allowed
> stack size, the limit per string is 32 pages (MAX_ARG_STRLEN), and the
> maximum number of strings is 0x7FFFFFFF.  Architectures with no memory
> management unit are excepted: they maintain the pre-2.6.23 limit.

Hello Ollie,

Thanks.  I'll see that this material makes it into a man pages release 
closer to the 2.6.23 final release.

Cheers,

Michael