[Pkg-zsh-devel] Bug#807836: builtin unlimit leads to "xargs: invalid number for -s"

[Thilo Six]

Hello Zsh maintainers,


in https://bugs.debian.org/807836 it was discovered that the Zsh builtin
"unlimit" has potential unforeseen side-effects.

An easy to reproduce case for the problem is documented in
https://bugs.debian.org/807836#30

The problem here is that unlimit sets the maximum input size to s.th. that is by
far out of the feasibility of the hardware being used.
This results in breakage of programs that reuse that capability for their own
processing.

I contact you to ask if that Zsh behaviour of "unlimit" is actually by design or
if this is a bug which should be fixed.
If the former i ask if the documentation of the "unlimit" builtin can be
extended to inform users that the usage of "unlimit" has potential unforeseen
side-effects which might break valid code.

Thank you in advance.


kind regards,

     Thilo