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From: Gary Kline <kline@tera.com>
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Subject: multi-media app runs out of forking capabilities
To: questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1996 13:06:39 -0800 (PST)
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  I didn't think that this would stall my devlopment, but
  it has.  Before I upgraded to 32MB of memory I sometimes
  would get a ``Can't fork'' error from the kernel.  I 
  thought that having 32 megs would automagically resolve
  this problems, but no such luck.

  Now I'm writing a multi-media app that does many forks
  to spawn and kill ancillary processes, and I am getting
  the same `can'tt fork' messages.

  My zsh used to  allow ulimit -p <N> where N could be 
  large.  The number of processes currently defaults to 
  just 40.  No longer.

  Q1:  What's the quick fix, if there is one for the 2.1.5 
  kernel?

  Q2:  What and where can I set the default and rebuild
  my kernel so that I have an unlimited or large (say 200)
  procs?

  Q3:  What code can I build in to my application to let
  it do all the forks it needs to? and will this require 
  the application to run suid?

  Thanks for any light here, guys... .

  gary kline