File: gawk.info,  Node: Implementation Limitations,  Next: Extension Design,  Prev: Future Extensions,  Up: Notes

C.4 Some Limitations of the Implementation
==========================================

This following table describes limits of 'gawk' on a Unix-like system
(although it is variable even then).  Other systems may have different
limits.

Item                          Limit
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Characters in a character     2^(number of bits per byte)
class
Length of input record in     'ULONG_MAX'
bytes
Length of output record       Unlimited
Length of source line         Unlimited
Number of fields in a         'ULONG_MAX'
record
Number of file redirections   Unlimited
Number of input records in    'MAX_LONG'
one file
Number of input records       'MAX_LONG'
total
Number of pipe redirections   min(number of processes per user, number
                              of open files)
Numeric values                Double-precision floating point (if not
                              using MPFR)
Size of a field in bytes      'ULONG_MAX'
Size of a literal string in   'ULONG_MAX'
bytes
Size of a printf string in    'ULONG_MAX'
bytes