'out of memory' errors

[tom arnall]

i am trying to us a perl application that handles large files (.5GB) in scalar 
variables.  when i try to  'slurp' one of these files into a variable 
(e.g., '$_ = `cat filename`) i get an out of memory error. (same for '@var = 
<FH>') initially, i ran the script without any memory limits. that was fine 
except the process would freeze the rest of the system. i dealt with this 
problem by setting limits for myself in /etc/security/limits.conf as follows;


        kloro   hard    rss             256000
        kloro   hard    memlock     256000
        kloro   hard    as              768000
        
now, tho' i get 'out of memory' errors. 

is there not some way to get linux to use swap space when physical memory is 
exceeded?

thanks,

tom arnall
north spit, ca



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