malloc() and limitations

[questions?]

I am using malloc to allocation memory for a group of structures. I am
not using a whole lot of memory.
But my program can run without a problem on a machine with 2GB RAM, but
with a machine less than 1GB memory, it fails to allocate memory.

What are the reasons the system cannot allocate memory? How can I fix
this problem?
( when the program starts, I am only using about 40MB memory which is
not a whole lot)

Please help me if you have any ideas

[pghoshjobs@gmail.com]

Re: malloc() and limitations


questions? wrote:

I am using malloc to allocation memory for a group of structures. I am
not using a whole lot of memory.
But my program can run without a problem on a machine with 2GB RAM, but
with a machine less than 1GB memory, it fails to allocate memory.
>
What are the reasons the system cannot allocate memory? How can I fix
this problem?
( when the program starts, I am only using about 40MB memory which is
not a whole lot)
>
Please help me if you have any ideas

you would not be able to allocate memory more then your physical memory
space. possibly the other programs are occupying the rest of the
memory. check out the available free memory using the 'free' command.


- Partha

[Keith Thompson]

Re: malloc() and limitations

"questions? " <universal_used @hotmail.comwri tes:

I am using malloc to allocation memory for a group of structures. I am
not using a whole lot of memory. But my program can run without a
problem on a machine with 2GB RAM, but with a machine less than 1GB
memory, it fails to allocate memory.
>
What are the reasons the system cannot allocate memory? How can I fix
this problem? ( when the program starts, I am only using about 40MB
memory which is not a whole lot)

The amount of memory that your program is allowed to allocate depends
on the operating system. It's very likely that the limit is going to
be far less than the total amount of memory on the system.

The details are implementation-specific. You might try asking in a
newsgroup that's specific to your system. <OT>If you're on a
Unix-like system, look into "limit" and/or "ulimit"; on other systems,
I haven't a clue.</OT>

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keit h) kst-u@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <* <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.

[ffairy2323@yahoo.com]

Re: malloc() and limitations

use reference point...


regards
<a href=www.gamest otal.com>free</a>
<a href=http://unificationwars .xeepo.com/>online</a>
<a href=http://unificationwars .0catch.com/>online games</a>

[ffairy2323@yahoo.com]

Re: malloc() and limitations

use reference point...


regards
<a href=www.gamest otal.com>free</a>
<a href=http://unificationwars .xeepo.com/>online</a>
<a href=http://unificationwars .0catch.com/>online games</a>

[Keith Thompson]

Re: malloc() and limitations

pghoshjobs@gmai l.com writes:

questions? wrote:

>I am using malloc to allocation memory for a group of structures. I am
>not using a whole lot of memory.
>But my program can run without a problem on a machine with 2GB RAM, but
>with a machine less than 1GB memory, it fails to allocate memory.
>>
>What are the reasons the system cannot allocate memory? How can I fix
>this problem?
>( when the program starts, I am only using about 40MB memory which is
>not a whole lot)
>>
>Please help me if you have any ideas

>
you would not be able to allocate memory more then your physical memory
space. possibly the other programs are occupying the rest of the
memory. check out the available free memory using the 'free' command.

Not all systems have a "free" command. (In fact, I don't know of any
that do.)

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keit h) kst-u@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <* <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.

[goose]

Re: malloc() and limitations

questions? wrote:

I am using malloc to allocation memory for a group of structures. I am
not using a whole lot of memory.
But my program can run without a problem on a machine with 2GB RAM, but
with a machine less than 1GB memory, it fails to allocate memory.
>
What are the reasons the system cannot allocate memory? How can I fix
this problem?
( when the program starts, I am only using about 40MB memory which is
not a whole lot)
>
Please help me if you have any ideas

My guess is that there is an error in your code.
Perhaps you've miscalculated and did something like
the following:

int sizes[] = {10, 20, 30};
....
ptr = malloc (sizes[4]); /* using garbage value, UB, etc */

Or maybe you did something like this
int length;
....
ptr = malloc (length); /* length uninitialised */


Or you may have even done this
int length = 0;
....
ptr = malloc (length); /* implementation defined,
can return NULL */


Whichever it is, I seriously doubt that any small
program that manipulates a group of structures
can legitimately exhaust memory on a 1G ram
implementation. If you are dealing with such large
amounts of data you are either:
a) reading it from disk and therefore you know how
large it is on disk (is it really supposed to be
a gig?) and should not be surprised when you run
out of memory.
b) you are generating the data yourself, which should
take a tremendous amount of time for non-trivial
algorithms to fill up a gig.

So, please post the smallest compilable code that
causes this problem and perhaps we can spot the
problem.

If you are generating the data from an algorithm,
a short description of the algorithm would be nice
too.

goose,

[Stephen Sprunk]

Re: malloc() and limitations

"Keith Thompson" <kst-u@mib.orgwrote in message
news:lny7ti389t .fsf@nuthaus.mi b.org...

"questions? " <universal_used @hotmail.comwri tes:

>I am using malloc to allocation memory for a group of structures. I
>am
>not using a whole lot of memory. But my program can run without a
>problem on a machine with 2GB RAM, but with a machine less than 1GB
>memory, it fails to allocate memory.
>>
>What are the reasons the system cannot allocate memory? How can I fix
>this problem? ( when the program starts, I am only using about 40MB
>memory which is not a whole lot)

>
The amount of memory that your program is allowed to allocate depends
on the operating system. It's very likely that the limit is going to
be far less than the total amount of memory on the system.

OTOH, many implementations allow you to allocate far _more_ than the
amount of physical memory. My system has a paltry 512MB of RAM yet user
processes can allocate just shy of 2GB _each_ -- though the system gets
rather slow if you actually try to _use_ that much.

S

--
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

[Gordon Burditt]

Re: malloc() and limitations

>What are the reasons the system cannot allocate memory? How can I fix

>this problem?
>( when the program starts, I am only using about 40MB memory which is
>not a whole lot)
>>
>Please help me if you have any ideas

>
>you would not be able to allocate memory more then your physical memory
>space.

There are a lot of virtual-memory systems which allow this (assuming
you're not counting swap/page space as "physical memory"). You may
have to override administrative defaults. You may or may not pay
a huge performance penalty which can still be better than the even
worse penalty of not being able to run it at all.

Gordon L. Burditt

[Keith Thompson]

Re: malloc() and limitations

gordonb.3wmjt@b urditt.org (Gordon Burditt) writes:

>>What are the reasons the system cannot allocate memory? How can I fix
>>this problem?
>>( when the program starts, I am only using about 40MB memory which is
>>not a whole lot)
>>>
>>Please help me if you have any ideas

The above was posted by "questions? " <universal_used @hotmail.com>.

>>you would not be able to allocate memory more then your physical memory
>>space.

The above was posted by pghoshjobs@gmai l.com.

There are a lot of virtual-memory systems which allow this (assuming
you're not counting swap/page space as "physical memory"). You may
have to override administrative defaults. You may or may not pay
a huge performance penalty which can still be better than the even
worse penalty of not being able to run it at all.

The above was posted by Gordon Burditt, who continues to insist on
deleting attribution lines in his followups. This is, as always,
extraordinarily rude.

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keit h) kst-u@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <* <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.