Q60491: cl May Run Out of Memory When Compiling Many Files At Once

Article: Q60491
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 6.00 6.00a  | 6.00 6.00a
Operating System(s): MS-DOS | OS/2
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | buglist6.00 buglist6.00a | mspl13_c
Last Modified: 31-JAN-1991

Compiling large numbers of files in one compilation pass can cause an
"Out Of Memory" error. CL.EXE is making memory allocations for each
file it compiles that isn't being freed until CL.EXE terminates.

This problem is most frequently encountered when passing wildcards to
the cl command. For example:

   cl -c *.c

The best workaround is to use a MAKE file to govern the compilation of
large programs. Because NMAKE spawns CL.EXE separately for each source
module, the memory is returned to the operating system between each
source compilation.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in C versions 6.00 and
6.00a. We are researching this problem and will post new information
here as it becomes available.

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