[comp.unix.xenix] cp on 386 xenix problem

farhad@corwin.usc.edu (Farhad Khansefid) (02/02/88)

Hi,

I have been happily using sco 386 xenix (2.2.1) on an Acer 1100 with
3Meg memory (minus 128k used internally), 80 Meg Miniscribe HD, a
Digiboard com/8s multi serial port and tape drive for quite some time
now.

Recently, when logged in as root, i tried to copy the contents of
current directory to a /safe directory by simply typing:

			cp * /safe

the cp command copied all the files until it reached a 4.9Meg file and then
the system hung. I rebooted, cleaned up the file system (fsck) and retried,
only to get the same result. My question is why?

	- do i need to play with the ulimit!
	- is it because filesize>max available memory!
	- is there a bug in cp. if so, anyone has the fix?

I think only the last case should result in a dead system. Speaking of bugs,
is there an (un)official bug list for sco xenix?

I should mention that I am very happy so far with the performance of the
above system and the 386 xenix.

Please reply directly to me ( farhad@usc.corwin.edu ) or if you think
your response is of general interest, please post since I follow this
group closely.

davidsen@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP (William E. Davidsen Jr) (02/09/88)

In article <6649@oberon.USC.EDU> farhad@corwin.usc.edu (Farhad Khansefid) writes:
| [...]
| Recently, when logged in as root, i tried to copy the contents of
| current directory to a /safe directory by simply typing:
| 
| 			cp * /safe
| 
| the cp command copied all the files until it reached a 4.9Meg file and then
| the system hung. I rebooted, cleaned up the file system (fsck) and retried,
| only to get the same result. My question is why?
| 
| 	- do i need to play with the ulimit!
	sure do. Default is about 2MB (and I wouldn't set it much higher
unless you're *sure* you need to and won't get bitten.
| 	- is it because filesize>max available memory!
	no
| 	- is there a bug in cp. if so, anyone has the fix?
	not really a bug. If the /safe directory is in the same place as
/tmp you also may have run the system out of tmp space, a problem not
directly related to ulimit.
-- 
	bill davidsen		(wedu@ge-crd.arpa)
  {uunet | philabs | seismo}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me

skip@skipnyc.UUCP (Skip Gilbrech) (02/10/88)

In article <9464@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP> davidsen@crdos1.UUCP
(bill davidsen) writes:
>| 	- do i need to play with the ulimit!
>	sure do. Default is about 2MB (and I wouldn't set it much higher
>unless you're *sure* you need to and won't get bitten.

Quoting from SCO Xenix Sys V 2.2.1 Release Notes pp 3.14, p. 27,
"The default ULIMIT has been raised for the XENIX System V Operating
System Release 2.2.  It is now 2,097,152 blocks (1 gigabyte)."

You can lower the limit with a ULIMIT=[512 byte blocks] statement in
/etc/default/login (it works -- I tried it..).
-- 
Skip Gilbrech                           UUCP: uunet!pwcmrd!skip
PaineWebber, NYC                              attmail!skipnyc!skip