From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 4 20:22:28 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ABED716A419 for ; Thu, 4 Oct 2007 20:22:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wundram@beenic.net) Received: from mail.beenic.net (mail.beenic.net [83.246.72.40]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 78A7313C4B7 for ; Thu, 4 Oct 2007 20:22:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wundram@beenic.net) Received: from phoenix (hnvr-4db3df86.pool.einsundeins.de [77.179.223.134]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.beenic.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 77F23A44529 for ; Thu, 4 Oct 2007 22:17:55 +0200 (CEST) From: "Heiko Wundram (Beenic)" Organization: Beenic Networks GmbH To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2007 22:22:25 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.7 References: <4704DFF3.9040200@ibctech.ca> <20071003200013.GD45244@demeter.hydra> <47054A1D.2000701@ibctech.ca> In-Reply-To: <47054A1D.2000701@ibctech.ca> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200710042222.25488.wundram@beenic.net> Subject: Re: Managing very large files X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:22:28 -0000 Am Donnerstag 04 Oktober 2007 22:16:29 schrieb Steve Bertrand: > This is what I am afraid of. Just out of curiosity, if I did try to read > the entire file into a Perl variable all at once, would the box panic, > or as the saying goes 'what could possibly go wrong'? Perl most certainly wouldn't make the box panic (at least I hope so :-)), but would barf and quit at some point in time when it can't allocate any more memory (because all memory is in use). Meanwhile, your swap would've filled up completely, and your box would've become totally unresponsive, which goes away instantly the second Perl is dead/quits. Try it. ;-) (at your own risk) -- Heiko Wundram Product & Application Development