From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 4 20:25:29 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 9561A16A47C for ; Thu, 4 Oct 2007 20:25:29 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from iaccounts@ibctech.ca) Received: from pearl.ibctech.ca (pearl.ibctech.ca [208.70.104.210]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3372E13C44B for ; Thu, 4 Oct 2007 20:25:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from iaccounts@ibctech.ca) Received: (qmail 54912 invoked by uid 1002); 4 Oct 2007 20:25:28 -0000 Received: from iaccounts@ibctech.ca by pearl.ibctech.ca by uid 89 with qmail-scanner-1.22 (spamassassin: 2.64. Clear:RC:1(208.70.104.100):. Processed in 21.041315 secs); 04 Oct 2007 20:25:28 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.30.110?) (steve@ibctech.ca@208.70.104.100) by pearl.ibctech.ca with (DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA encrypted) SMTP; 4 Oct 2007 20:25:06 -0000 Message-ID: <47054C2E.8040304@ibctech.ca> Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:25:18 -0400 From: Steve Bertrand User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 (Windows/20070728) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Heiko Wundram (Beenic)" References: <4704DFF3.9040200@ibctech.ca> <20071003200013.GD45244@demeter.hydra> <47054A1D.2000701@ibctech.ca> <200710042222.25488.wundram@beenic.net> In-Reply-To: <200710042222.25488.wundram@beenic.net> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.95.3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org 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 20:25:29 -0000 Heiko Wundram (Beenic) wrote: > 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) LOL, on a production box?...nope. Hence why I asked here, probing if someone has made this mistake before I do ;) The reason for the massive file size was my haste in running out of the office on Friday and forgetting to kill the tcpdump process before the weekend began. Steve