vi file size limit?

[Conor P. Cahill]

In article <6126 at plains.NoDak.edu> bfoushe at plains.NoDak.edu (Bill Foushee) writes:
>I'm trying to find out the definitive answer to... Is there a size
>limit for a file that can be edited using vi?

It depends upon whos vi it is.  Here is a snippit from the comp.unix.sysv386
FAQ posting that talks about it:

11. Why doesn't vi work on large files?

	There are two possible problems.  The first problem may be
	that you are running into a ULIMIT problem.  See the discussion
	under question 12 to figure out how to change/correct it.

	If this is not the probem, you may be running into a bug/feature
	of some VIs.  The problem is that there are compiled in limits
	as to the number of lines in the data file. 
	
	This problem is known to exist in the following Unix packages:

		AT&T System V Rel 3.2
		Bell Technologies System V Rel 3.2 (was ok in 3.1)

>I'm using an AT&T 3B2/600g with Sys V 3.2.2, with 32M ram, a ulimit
>of 65536, and 21M swap space.

I think AT&T broke it when they went from 3.1 to 3.2.  I had a BT 
system running SVR3.1 and vi would handle monstrous files (and nice 
big windows) and when I upgraded to 3.2 it no longer worked (of course
I then reloaded the vi that I had on 3.1 and everything was peachy keen.

>The largest size file I can edit is about 250K.  The AT&T hotline
>tells me that vi can only handle files less than 200K, but I know

I think they say that their vi can only handle files less than 200k.
Under ISC Unix, (which, by the way has a string in it "Version SVR3.1")
I routinely edit files larger than 1MB.

>computer using BSD 4.3 Unix.  Is this a difference in vi on the
>two systems, or should I be able to change the size of the file
>vi can edit on my 3B2/600g?  The system prints the message "Tmp

The real problem is that you can't change it.  They are compiled
into the binary.


-- 
Conor P. Cahill            (703)430-9247        Virtual Technologies, Inc.,
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