This test was performed on FreeCOM running inside DOSBox using the DOSBox kernel.

I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking and did something dumb in a batch file which caused FreeCOM to break... Again.

My intent was to create a simple crazy big text file for some testing. I was doing this using a couple V8Power Tools programs using this batch:

@echo off

set max=50
set line=0
set /e str=vstr /r 235 /c 0xfe
:repeating
if "%line%" == "%max%" goto done
set /e line=vmath %line% + 1
set /e hex=vmath %line% /h
echo %hex% %str%
goto repeating
:done

The vstr /r 235 /c 0xfe is repeat the next option 235 times, the next option being output ASCII 0xfe to StdOut.
The vmath %line% + 1 is add 1 to %line%
The vmath %line% /h is output result as hexadecimal.

The obviously dumb thing I did was repeating the character 235 times. This exceeds the maximum line length of 125 characters in batch files. Running this batch resulted in this output:

All of those errors about the length exceeding the maximum should be expected. However, the "out of memory error." was a surprise. Even more of a surprise is that the error is non-recoverable and required closing DOSBox.

By reducing the number of repeated output characters to a sane number like 40, the batch will happily iterate through the requested lines until the max value is reached without any issues.

If I REM out the echo %hex% %str% and keep the 235 character output, the issue still occurs.

So, I ran a bunch of tests using different repeat counts. Everything worked fine until I used 231 characters for the repeat count. Then the Out of Memory Error occurs.

Interestingly, at 230 characters the batch generates no errors and creates output like this:

I just realized I should perform this test under the latest FreeCOM build created by ECM. It is actually worse. When run it looks like this:

However, after pressing a key. It sometimes causes DOSBox to close. It sometimes generates things like this and freezes:

Like the older version of FreeCOM, the latest build is fine if the repeated character length is 230 or less.