PRODUCT  :  Borland C++                           NUMBER  :  1370
  VERSION  :  All
       OS  :  DOS
     DATE  :  October 25, 1993                         PAGE  :  1/1

    TITLE  :  Why spawn(), exec(), and system() may fail.




       The most common reason for a failure of the "spawn()",
  "system()", or "exec()" functions is not having enough memory
  available. This is a common problem when running in the
  Integrated Development Environment ( IDE ).

       The IDE reserves 64k of memory for the program heap size by
  default. This is done because the IDE defaults to creating
  applications in the small memory model, which only allows 64k of
  near heap. This also frees up more memory for the IDE, which can
  effect the speed of stepping through large programs.

       One effect of reserving only 64k of heap is that certain
  functions will not operate ( such as spawn() ). The solution is
  to increase the amount of available heap space. This is done
  under Options | Debugger - Program Heap size. The default is 64,
  so increase it to 640 to grab all available base memory for the
  heap.


  DISCLAIMER: You have the right to use this technical information
  subject to the terms of the No-Nonsense License Statement that
  you received with the Borland product to which this information
  pertains.