Perl's execution stack is malloced() from the heap rather than using the C stack, so infinite recursion just means perl keeps mallocing memory. My general experience with runaway processes on Linux is that the machine grinds to a complete halt (with not even the cursor moving) for several minutes until the process dies or is killed, then things slowly come back to normal (as swapped out memory is brought back in).

If it's just a malloc() problem, then something like 

perl -e'push @a, 1 while 1'

[download]
should kill the machine just as easily,

Dave.

In reply to Re: Perl Deep Recursion locks up modern linuxes? by dave_the_m
in thread Perl Deep Recursion locks up modern linuxes? by vsespb

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