: david@radon:~; sbcl --dynamic-space-size 128 --userinit /dev/null This is SBCL 1.0.12.42, an implementation of ANSI Common Lisp. More information about SBCL is available at . SBCL is free software, provided as is, with absolutely no warranty. It is mostly in the public domain; some portions are provided under BSD-style licenses. See the CREDITS and COPYING files in the distribution for more information. * (defun testmem (size) (ignore-errors (loop for i upfrom 1 collect (make-array size)))) TESTMEM * (testmem 10000) Soft heap limit of 32768 pages reached with 32760 pages in use and 19 bytes requested. (1 page == 4096 bytes) debugger invoked on a SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR in thread #: Condition SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR was signalled. Type HELP for debugger help, or (SB-EXT:QUIT) to exit from SBCL. restarts (invokable by number or by possibly-abbreviated name): 0: [CHANGE ] Specify a new soft limit 1: [DISABLE] Disable the soft limit entirely 2: [ABORT ] Exit debugger, returning to top level. (SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR) 0] change Enter a new soft heap limit in megabytes: 256 Soft heap limit of 65536 pages reached with 65531 pages in use and 19 bytes requested. (1 page == 4096 bytes) debugger invoked on a SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR in thread #: Condition SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR was signalled. Type HELP for debugger help, or (SB-EXT:QUIT) to exit from SBCL. restarts (invokable by number or by possibly-abbreviated name): 0: [CHANGE ] Specify a new soft limit 1: [DISABLE] Disable the soft limit entirely 2: [ABORT ] Exit debugger, returning to top level. (SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR) 0] change Enter a new soft heap limit in megabytes: 512 Soft heap limit of 131072 pages reached with 131061 pages in use and 19 bytes requested. (1 page == 4096 bytes) debugger invoked on a SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR in thread #: Condition SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR was signalled. Type HELP for debugger help, or (SB-EXT:QUIT) to exit from SBCL. restarts (invokable by number or by possibly-abbreviated name): 0: [CHANGE ] Specify a new soft limit 1: [DISABLE] Disable the soft limit entirely 2: [ABORT ] Exit debugger, returning to top level. (SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR) 0] change Enter a new soft heap limit in megabytes: 768 Soft heap limit of 196608 pages reached with 196604 pages in use and 19 bytes requested. (1 page == 4096 bytes) debugger invoked on a SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR in thread #: Condition SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR was signalled. Type HELP for debugger help, or (SB-EXT:QUIT) to exit from SBCL. restarts (invokable by number or by possibly-abbreviated name): 0: [CHANGE ] Specify a new soft limit 1: [DISABLE] Disable the soft limit entirely 2: [ABORT ] Exit debugger, returning to top level. (SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR) 0] abort * (gc :full t) Soft heap limit of 196608 pages reached with 196638 pages in use and 0 bytes requested. (1 page == 4096 bytes) debugger invoked on a SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR in thread #: Condition SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR was signalled. Type HELP for debugger help, or (SB-EXT:QUIT) to exit from SBCL. restarts (invokable by number or by possibly-abbreviated name): 0: [CHANGE ] Specify a new soft limit 1: [DISABLE] Disable the soft limit entirely 2: [ABORT ] Exit debugger, returning to top level. (SB-KERNEL::SOFT-HEAP-EXHAUSTED-ERROR) 0] WARNING: Starting a select without a timeout while interrupts are disabled. 1 NIL * (room) Dynamic space usage is: 38,290,464 bytes. Read-only space usage is: 1,664 bytes. Static space usage is: 4,000 bytes. Control stack usage is: 2,240 bytes. Binding stack usage is: 672 bytes. Control and binding stack usage is for the current thread only. Garbage collection is currently enabled. Breakdown for dynamic space: 12,823,072 bytes for 11,230 code objects. 6,913,392 bytes for 79,780 instance objects. 6,221,600 bytes for 54,203 simple-vector objects. 5,602,448 bytes for 350,153 cons objects. 6,755,360 bytes for 118,607 other objects. 38,315,872 bytes for 613,973 dynamic objects (space total.) * sb-kernel::soft-pages-limit 0 * (setf sb-kernel::soft-pages-limit 262144) 262144 * (quit)