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Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:29:03 +0200
From: Christoph Moench-Tegeder <cmt@burggraben.net>
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Subject: Re: Thank you (for making the ports less boring).
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## perryh@pluto.rain.com (perryh@pluto.rain.com):

> > I notice "/bin/echo */*/Makefile*" doesn't work.
> 
> The same (builtin echo works, /bin/echo not) happens in /bin/sh,
> and in bash.
> 
> > Is this documented somewhere?
> 
> Not that I know of.

There is a limit to the length of arguments to the exec()-functions
(measured in bytes). It's even in POSIX.1: ARG_MAX, you can query it
with "getconf ARG_MAX". When using shell builtins (like echo, instead
of the "external" /bin/echo), no exec() happens and the limit does
not apply.
If I got my history right, this was even in 4.4BSD.

Regards,
Christoph

-- 
Spare Space.