why shell out? 
my $i=1;
my $x;
while (1)
{
    print $i, "\n";
    $x = 'x' x ($i*1024*1024);
    $i += 10;
}

[download]
happily eats up all my memory

In reply to Re^2: Maximum string length by duckyd
in thread Maximum string length by Berislav

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