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shantanuo
Asked: 2012-05-15 01:56:07 +0800 CST

Memory exhaust error

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I am getting memory related error when I try to split a big file into 8GB files.

# split -C 8000000000 r_mini_20120503.txt  
split: memory exhausted

I am however able to create 4GB files using the same command. Is there any way to increase memory for this purpose?

linux memory

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Maybe split is the somewhat wrong tool for this task. You can try it with dd (untested):

    infile=r_mini_20120503.txt
filesize=1234567890 # manual set
skip=0
chunk=8000000000
bs=1000000000
count=8
part=1

while [ $skip -lt $filesize ] ; do
    dd if=$infile of=$infile.$part bs=$bs count=$count skip=$skip
    skip=[[ $skip + $chunk ]]
    part=[[ $part + 1 ]]
done

    As I wrote, untested.

    • 3

  2. I'd say you're trying to use more memory than is on your system.
    You could have a go at doing this in Single User mode, so there's less services, and other stuff (like X and GDM) running.

    To do that, run telinit 1

    OR.. Install more RAM. It's cheap.

    • 0

  3. How much RAM is in your box? You could add some more swap to your system for the time being, but that's going to be dog slow :P

    • 0