Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:29:03 +0200
From:      Christoph Moench-Tegeder <cmt@burggraben.net>
To:        freebsd-ports@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Thank you (for making the ports less boring).
Message-ID:  <20110914082902.GA32250@ns.burggraben.net>
In-Reply-To: <4e70bdb8.AJO467lneB8GUlld%perryh@pluto.rain.com>
References:  <201109131411.p8DEBTGA081124@lurza.secnetix.de> <4E6FC59C.5090509@missouri.edu> <4e70bdb8.AJO467lneB8GUlld%perryh@pluto.rain.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
## 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.



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20110914082902.GA32250>