memtime perl -e '$h = ""; $x = (2**31)-2; vec($h,$x,8) = 0;' Exit [0] 0.94 user, 1.34 system, 2.30 elapsed -- Max VSize = 2115872KB, Max RSS = 2042140KB #### memtime perl -e '$h = ""; $x = (2**31)-1; vec($h,$x,8) = 0;' Out of memory! Exit [1] 0.00 user, 0.00 system, 0.10 elapsed -- Max VSize = 3720KB, Max RSS = 192KB #### memtime perl -e '$h = ""; $x = (2**31); vec($h,$x,8) = 0;' Negative offset to vec in lvalue context at -e line 1. Exit [255] 0.00 user, 0.00 system, 0.10 elapsed -- Max VSize = 3720KB, Max RSS = 128KB