what is the max length of args i can pass in shell?

senthilk615 · June 12, 2006, 4:23pm

i have a shell script which takes several args. what is the maximum length of string i can give as argument?

jim_mcnamara · June 12, 2006, 5:30pm

ARG_MAX is configurable for your system. This is the total bytes in all of the arguments passed to exec. If you try this:

grep 'ARG_MAX' /usr/include/limits.h

it will display the value for your system. It is usually pretty big.

Chanakya.m · June 13, 2006, 2:31am

In my case i could not find any "ARG_MAX" in /usr/include/limits.h file.. Then i think there should be a default value .. what it is?

tayyabq8 · June 13, 2006, 3:04am

Which OS you are using?

Chanakya.m · June 13, 2006, 3:59am

I am using LINUX

vino · June 13, 2006, 4:26am

Look into /usr/include/linux/limits.h

#define ARG_MAX       131072    /* # bytes of args + environ for exec() */

Chanakya.m · June 13, 2006, 4:29am

Thanks Vino .. i got it