Subj : Re: CRT _beginthread returns -1, errno=ENOMEM "Not enough space" on 3GB dualcpu
To   : comp.programming.threads,comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.nt.kernel-mode,microsoft.public.vc.language
From : Severian
Date : Thu Mar 31 2005 06:29 am

On 30 Mar 2005 21:50:17 -0800, lpdcunha@engmail.uwaterloo.ca (Larry
D'Cunha) wrote:

>I need some help debugging a program that is hanging because of a
>thread problem with _beginthread() multithreaded C-runtime call. I'm
>using VS6 debugger to step into the code.
>
>System: Xeon 3.2GHz, dual cpu, 3.2GB RAM
>
>Problem: 
>Two threads are being created. First one created ok. Second one fails.
>_beginthread() returns (-1L). I have this:
>
> thr = _beginthread( (void (*)(void *) )f, stk_size, (void *)arg );
>
>Error code I get is: 
>  1) errno = 12, ENOMEM "Not enough space"
>  2) GetLastError() returns 8, ERROR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORY  
>     "Not enough storage is available to process this command."
>
> stk_size passed in 32768 for both threads.

MSDN mentions that any thread using the C runtime requires at least a
64KB stack. I think this is a more likely problem in your case than
running out of virtual address space, which you can check using
Process Explorer from http://www.sysinternals.com, or the memory tools
available from http://www.softwareverify.com.

<snip>

>p.s.  Aside: I had some CRT-debug problems. I linked msvcrtd.dll
>debug-multithreaded CRT into the app. But I could not successfully
>step into the code for _beginthread() in thread.c CRT-source file. The
>symbols were not found (even though I have msvcrtd.pdb in the path)
>These files are all in my VC98 subdirectories. Oh well.

Look up the MS symbol server in MSDN. It will keep your symbols
up-to-date for all your system DLLs. You set your symbol path to a
special string which downloads symbols for system DLLs automatically
as needed, and updates them after service packs, updates, patches,
etc.

--
Sev

.