Manual:$wgMaxShellMemory

Shell and process control: $wgMaxShellMemory
Maximum amount of virtual memory available to shell processes under Linux, in KiB.
Introduced in version:	1.7.0 (r14795)
Removed in version:	Still in use
Allowed values:	(integer)
Default value:	307200 (1.22+) gerrit:91833 102400 (1.7-1.21)
Other settings: Alphabetical | By function

Default

// Maximum amount of virtual memory available to shell processes under Linux, in KiB.
$wgMaxShellMemory = 307200;

1 KiB = 1024 B, 102400 KiB = 100 MiB, 307200 KiB = 300 MiB, etc.

Details

Under Linux, shell commands are executed with the time and memory limits given by $wgMaxShellTime and $wgMaxShellMemory. Setting either variable to 0 will disable both limits.

If generating thumbnails with ImageMagick fails with a web server error log message like "Memory allocation failed" or "/bin/ulimit4.sh: Segmentation fault /usr/bin/convert ..." or "convert: Unable to extend cache ...", the $wgMaxShellMemory value may need to be increased.

If using Batik to render SVG graphics on some systems, this value needs to be raised in order for the extension to function. (The phrase "Could not create the Java virtual machine." may appear in Apache error log if this problem is occurring.)

See also

• $wgMaxShellFileSize - Maximum file size created by shell processes under linux
• $wgMaxShellTime - Maximum time allowance for Linux shell processes
• $wgShellCgroup - Use cgroups instead of ulimit -v to control memory usage, which is more reliable.