This file gives some hints on addressing this problem on different platforms.
Under Unix-like systems, programs may throw a "Segmentation Fault"
error. This can be due to stack overflow, especially from recursive
function calls or huge data sets. In our demo program "Pi"
(see "$(CORE_PATH)/progs/pi"), we compute Pi to any number of desired
bits or digits. Here are some test results on when stack overflows
will occur on different platforms, using their default stack sizes.
platform default size # bits # digits
===============================================================
SunOS/Solaris 8172K bytes <=39875 <=12003 (Shared Version)
Linux 8172K bytes <=62407 <=18786
Windows 1024K bytes <=10581 <=3185 (Release Version)
cygwin 2048K bytes <=3630 <=1092
If we now change their stack size to their maximum, our Pi program can
compute more bits.
platform stack size # bits # digits
===============================================================
SunOS/Solaris unlimited >=100,000 30102
Linux 8172K bytes <=33,219,282 <=10,000,000(?)
Windows 32768K bytes <=343077 <=12041
How to change the default stack size on different platforms:
In general, under Unix-like platforms, the stack size is controlled
by environment variable, not the program itself.
So you cannot pass any flags to the
compilers, like gcc, to setup stack size. Under Windows platforms, the
stack size information is contained in the executable files. It can be set
during compilation in Visual C++, but this is not available in gcc.
Alternatively, Microsoft provides a program "editbin.exe" which can change the
executable files directly. Here are more details:
SunOS/Solaris:
==============
> limit # shows the current stack size
> unlimit # changes the stack size to unlimited
> setenv STACKSIZE 32768 # limits the stack size to 32M bytes
Linux:
======
> ulimit -a # shows the current stack size
> ulimit -s 32768 # sets the stack size to 32M bytes
Windows (during compilation):
=============================
1. Select "Project->Setting".
2. Select "Link" page.
3. Select "Category" to "Output".
4. Type your preferred stack size in "Reserve:" field under "Stack
allocations". eg, 32768 in decimal or 0x20000 in hexadecimal.
Windows (to modify the executable file):
=======================================
There are two programs included in Microsoft Visual Studio, "dumpbin.exe"
and "editbin.exe". Run "dumpbin /headers executable_file", and you can see
the "size of stack reserve" information in "optional header values". Run
"editbin /STACK:size" to change the default stack size.