thread limit question

[Jason Stephenson]

Bryan Kate wrote:

> i am beginning to think there is another setting somewhere (the shell or
> in login?) that allows a limitation on processes. i just cant find it.


Have you checked CHILD_MAX or whatever it's called? I think there's a 
limit on the number of child processes that a single process can spawn. 
It might even be hardcoded (in a #define) in one of the kernel headers. 
If threads are still implemented as processes on Linux, then you'd be 
hitting that limit, too.