rudy@chukran.austin.ibm.com (12/04/90)
The only hardcoded limit for total number of concurrent processes is 2**17. 17 bits of the process ID are used as a hash into the process table. If this limit is exceeded, the system behaves as any other UNIX system: the fork fails with a EAGAIN return. If your system creates processes in an unbounded fashion, then most likely the first resource that will be exhausted is paging space. Page space exhaustion has been discussed ad infinitum here before , and I wont elaborate other than to say the system does try to kill processes. Bottom line: If you allocate enough page space, your programs wont die. Moreover, there are methods, namely catching SIGDANGER, that make your program robust and immune to being killed in this manner. ********************************************************************* Rudy Chukran | EMAIL: IBM AIX Porting Center | RSCS: CHUKRAN at AUSTIN 11400 Burnet Rd. | AWDnet: rudy@chukran.austin.ibm.com Internal ZIP 2830 | internet: chukran@austin.iinus1.ibm.com Austin, Texas 78758 | Voice: 512-838-4674 Tieline: 678-4674 *********************************************************************