Max # of procceses on Risc System/6000

[rudy at chukran.austin.ibm.com]

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. 


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Rudy Chukran            |       EMAIL:            
IBM AIX Porting Center  | RSCS: CHUKRAN at AUSTIN 
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