Raise command line argument string/size limit (ARG_MAX) Mac OSX

Question

I have a node script I pass a large json stream into as command line arg. It's worth noting I am running Mac OSX High Sierra

The script is unable to run because of this error:

-bash: /usr/local/bin/node: Argument list too long

Upon reading, this is caused my a limit in the ARG_MAX or MAX_ARG_STRLEN according to https://www.in-ulm.de/~mascheck/various/argmax/

I attempted to raise these limits in the config file here /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include/sys/syslimits.h

Here is a section of the file where I have raised the ARG_MAX size from (256 * 1024) and I have added the MAX_ARG_STRLEN config.

#define ARG_MAX        (512 * 1024) /* max bytes for an exec function */
#define MAX_ARG_STRLEN (PAGE_SIZE * 64)
#if !defined(_POSIX_C_SOURCE) || defined(_DARWIN_C_SOURCE)
#define CHILD_MAX          266  /* max simultaneous processes */
#define GID_MAX        2147483647U  /* max value for a gid_t (2^31-2) */
#endif /* (_POSIX_C_SOURCE && !_DARWIN_C_SOURCE) */
#define LINK_MAX        32767   /* max file link count */
#define MAX_CANON        1024   /* max bytes in term canon input line */
#define MAX_INPUT        1024   /* max bytes in terminal input */
#define NAME_MAX          255   /* max bytes in a file name */
#define NGROUPS_MAX        16   /* max supplemental group id's */
#if !defined(_POSIX_C_SOURCE) || defined(_DARWIN_C_SOURCE)
#define UID_MAX        2147483647U  /* max value for a uid_t (2^31-2) */

#define OPEN_MAX        10240   /* max open files per process - todo, make a config option? */

#endif /* (_POSIX_C_SOURCE && !_DARWIN_C_SOURCE) */
#define PATH_MAX         1024   /* max bytes in pathname */
#define PIPE_BUF          512   /* max bytes for atomic pipe writes */

#define BC_BASE_MAX        99   /* max ibase/obase values in bc(1) */
#define BC_DIM_MAX       2048   /* max array elements in bc(1) */
#define BC_SCALE_MAX           99   /* max scale value in bc(1) */
#define BC_STRING_MAX        1000   /* max const string length in bc(1) */
#define CHARCLASS_NAME_MAX     14   /* max character class name size */
#define COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX        2   /* max weights for order keyword */
#define EQUIV_CLASS_MAX         2
#define EXPR_NEST_MAX          32   /* max expressions nested in expr(1) */
#define LINE_MAX         2048   /* max bytes in an input line */
#define RE_DUP_MAX        255   /* max RE's in interval notation */

#if __DARWIN_UNIX03
#define NZERO              20   /* default priority [XSI] */
                    /* = ((PRIO_MAX - PRIO_MIN) / 2) + 1 */
                    /* range: 0 - 39 [(2 * NZERO) - 1] */
                    /* 0 is not actually used */
#else /* !__DARWIN_UNIX03 */
#define NZERO               0   /* default priority */
                    /* range: -20 - 20 */
                    /* (PRIO_MIN - PRIO_MAX) */
#endif /* __DARWIN_UNIX03 */
#endif /* !_ANSI_SOURCE */

#endif /* !_SYS_SYSLIMITS_H_ */

After these changes, my file which contains 330,000 characters is still failing. The file is 300kb upon running the node script.

Your expertise is appreciated! I am unsure if this is caused by an overflow in the string size or the arg size (what is the difference?) Either way I have not found a way to make it work

Answer 1

These values cannot be changed in Mac OS X kernel.