Even with a 64-bit kernel, under bash4.1-2 under ubuntu 10.04, problems exist with numbers beyond 2147483646.
Easy duplication method: echo {2147483640..2147483646} reports 2147483640 2147483641 2147483642 2147483643 2147483644 2147483645 2147483646 echo {2147483640..2147483647} dies with a malloc error larger numbers are accepted but cause similar issues - perhaps because it is internally treating these as signed 32-bit ints? It would be great if things could 'just work' Regards Pete