Heap memory limit?

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:36:04 -0500, bearophile <bearophileHUGS at lycos.com>  
wrote:

> The Java VM has a limit of the amount of memory it allocates from the  
> heap. So is it useful to add a way to specify a similar limit for D2  
> programs (especially ones made by safe module)? This limit can be given  
> to the D GC heap (and maybe to the C heap too).
>
> This limit can just be a compile-time constant given to the compiler,  
> this produces a binary that has a limit of 200 MB of heap:
> dmd -mlimit=200mb foo.d
> The situation gets less simple if you want to change such limit after  
> the program is already compiled, I don't know of simple ways to do it.  
> Maybe a second program can be used for that:
> gclimiter -mlimit=100mb foo.exe

The GC is open source.  Submit a patch if you want.  DMD is not in charge  
of the GC, it is runtime code, I don't think we need a specific option for  
it.  I think it can be runtime-decided, and the option passed via your  
program initialization.  I.e.:

void main()
{
GC.memlimit = 200_000_000; // 200 MB
...
}

I also don't think that limits to memory are too important for most  
applications, only for specific ones.


-Steve