exceeding lisp pointer size?

exceeding lisp pointer size?

[clemens fischer]

i got a warning from my trusty emacs-21 on freebsd:

  Warning: memory in use exceeds lisp pointer size
  Killing some buffers may delay running out of memory.
  However, certainly by the time you receive the 95% warning,
  you should clean up, kill this Emacs, and start a new one.

this is not always reproducable, but it usually happens when
pasting/yanking large (X-)selections (a few hundred lines).  it
happened specifically when answering a X509 related message in gnus
where i wanted to keep details of the certificate chain.  gnus message
mode sees the pgg generated verification result line and folds/unfolds
its contents, but the same problem appears when using Xclip(1) to
stash a large X-selection from a file and trying to paste it into some
emacs buffer.  emacs doesn't actually finish the yank, and it takes
about a minute before showing the warning.  nothing is lost and i can
keep using the (damaged?) emacs session, but i cannot get it to handle
kill items of size bigger than about 100 .. 200 lines!

whatever:  this is an emacs, not a gnus problem.  i would like to know
which variable i could frob to allow emacs more room.  my ~/.emacs
contains:

      ;;; Raise the default
      ;(setq gc-cons-threshold 1000000) ; 400000
      garbage-collection-messages nil
      max-specpdl-size 6555       ; Gnus
      max-lisp-eval-depth 555     ; default: 300
      kill-ring-max 133

i have browse-kill-ring and CUA-mode, and the warning has never
appeared before starting to use CUA-mode, _i think_!

thanks,

  clemens

Re: exceeding lisp pointer size?

[Kai Großjohann]

clemens fischer <ino-qc@spotteswoode.dnsalias.org> writes:

> i got a warning from my trusty emacs-21 on freebsd:
>
>   Warning: memory in use exceeds lisp pointer size
>   Killing some buffers may delay running out of memory.
>   However, certainly by the time you receive the 95% warning,
>   you should clean up, kill this Emacs, and start a new one.
>
> this is not always reproducable, but it usually happens when
> pasting/yanking large (X-)selections (a few hundred lines).

Fascinating.  I get it after `J s' in Gnus.  More and more people get
it -- perhaps it's an Emacs issue instead of a Gnus issue?  But you
use a current Gnus, too.
-- 
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Re: exceeding lisp pointer size?

[Clemens Fischer]

* 2003-06-11 Kai Großjohann:

> clemens fischer <ino-qc@spotteswoode.dnsalias.org> writes:
>
>> i got a warning from my trusty emacs-21 on freebsd:
>>
>>   Warning: memory in use exceeds lisp pointer size
>>   Killing some buffers may delay running out of memory.
>>   However, certainly by the time you receive the 95% warning,
>>   you should clean up, kill this Emacs, and start a new one.
>>
>> this is not always reproducable, but it usually happens when
>> pasting/yanking large (X-)selections (a few hundred lines).
>
> Fascinating.  I get it after `J s' in Gnus.  More and more people get
> it -- perhaps it's an Emacs issue instead of a Gnus issue?  But you
> use a current Gnus, too.

it just got even more fascinating:  if i use xsel(1), no error is
flashed and the pasting works.  but this used to happen everywhere in
emacs, not only gnus.

(emacs-version)
"GNU Emacs 21.3.1 (i386-unknown-freebsd4.8, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll
 bars) of 2003-08-10"

  clemens

Re: exceeding lisp pointer size?

[Stefan Monnier]

>>> i got a warning from my trusty emacs-21 on freebsd:
>>> 
>>> Warning: memory in use exceeds lisp pointer size

It's a bad interaction between Emacs and FreeBSD.  I have a
fix for it for Emacs-CVS, but it's not quite ready yet.
Tell me if you want to try it out when it's ready.


        Stefan