sh.exe (bash) heap space error on Windows XP

I am running a bash shell on Windows XP that is shipped with Git for Windows. The command window's title shows MINGW32, and the error message contains Cygwin. This is the command that I run and the resulting error message

$ python replay.py --record C/Windows/Temp/archive-2013-01-03.wpr
      0 [main] us 0 init_cheap: VirtualAlloc pointer is null, Win32 error 487
AllocationBase 0x1190000, BaseAddress 0x1350000, RegionSize 0x240000, State 0x20
00
c:\Python27\python.exe: *** Couldn't reserve space for cygwin's heap, Win32 error 6

Memory use is not the issue here, as show in this screenshot

Memory usage is low on Windows XP

Is there any way to tweak cygwin or cmd.exe on Windows XP to solve the problem?

hanxue

Posted 2013-01-03T09:53:52.180

Reputation: 2 354

Answers

Two thoughts:

First rule of Cygwin Club: when you get weird errors, rebase before anything else. (I hate black-magic rules like that, but this one works too often to ignore).
If that does nothing (equally likely), and you really believe it is heap-related, you can mess with the heap using the peflags utility

ckhan

Posted 2013-01-03T09:53:52.180

Reputation: 5 689

I realize I did not post the question clear enough. I am using the bash executable from Git for Windows http://msysgit.github.com/

Suspect sh.exe (bash) is compiled using cygwin since the error message says so, although the command window's title shows MINGW32. Searched the whole hard disk, there is not any cygwin executable.

– hanxue – 2013-01-03T10:22:09.870

Open up Process Explorer, hit Ctrl-F and enter cygwin. Something's linked against it, as you note.

– ckhan – 2013-01-03T10:30:49.180

I had this problem on Windows 7 after installing "Comodo Firewall". I uninstalled the firewall and the problem is gone. Seems like except the firewall functionality the Comodo suite adds some other guarding features that conflict with cygwin.

Jarekczek

Posted 2013-01-03T09:53:52.180

Reputation: 161

-1

I had this problem with AVG Antivirus Free enabled. I disabled's AVG protection, and now MinGW works fine.

stargazer

Posted 2013-01-03T09:53:52.180

Reputation: 1