[bug #20594] allow ./configure to choose default arg size limit

[Eric Blake]

Follow-up Comment #2, bug #20594 (project findutils):

cygwin is an interesting beast.  From cygwin's point of view, there really is
no limit when invoking another cygwin app; so sysconf(_SC_ARG_MAX) should
either return -1 for unlimited, or start enforcing the same limit as Windows
in spite of the fact that no limit is necessary.  In cygwin 1.5.24, the
sysconf returned an arbitrary 1 meg (which matches neither of the two
reasonable values I would have expected).  But it looks like the cygwin
developers will change cygwin 1.7.0 to report ARG_MAX (32k) instead of 1 meg:
http://cygwin.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/src/winsup/cygwin/sysconf.cc.diff?r1=1.46&r2=1.47&cvsroot=src&f=h

So I agree with your sentiments that the patch does not solve the xargs
problem for cygwin, and that, for now, that I will just continue patching the
cygwin package of findutils manually until cygwin 1.7.0 is released. 
Meanwhile, I will wait to see if Leslie's patch to auto-reduce the size on
failure makes a difference.

However, as pointed out in the findutils-patches thread, the problem of
fine-tuning the default size is independent of the cygwin limitation that
prompted me to open the bug, and can be considered useful in its own right.  I
will reply to that thread; I think there is still utility in applying
something that lets a user tune the default argument size at ./configure time,
so long as we are clear that it is a feature on its own, and not merely a
workaround for a cygwin-specific limitation.


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