GNU Coreutils, BusyBox, and Toybox buffer the input of the base*
commands so that they can operate on files that do not fit into memory,
but uutils does not:
$ s=10000000 # 10GiB
$ timeout 10 sh -c \
"(ulimit -v $s && base64 < /dev/zero >out 2>err)"
$ cat err && wc -c out
6514348032 out
$ timeout 10 sh -c \
"(ulimit -v $s && busybox base64 < /dev/zero >out 2>err)"
$ cat err && wc -c out
1189785519 out
$ timeout 10 sh -c \
"(ulimit -v $s && toybox base64 < /dev/zero >out 2>err)"
$ cat err && wc -c out
199167661 out
$ timeout 10 sh -c \
"(ulimit -v $s && uutils base64 < /dev/zero >out 2>err)"
$ cat err && wc -c out
base64: out of memory
0 out
* tests/basenc/basenc-bounded-memory.sh: New file.
* tests/local.mk (all_tests): Add the test.
---
tests/basenc/basenc-bounded-memory.sh | 41 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
tests/local.mk | 1 +
2 files changed, 42 insertions(+)
create mode 100755 tests/basenc/basenc-bounded-memory.sh
diff --git a/tests/basenc/basenc-bounded-memory.sh
b/tests/basenc/basenc-bounded-memory.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..6bd7f6e35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/basenc/basenc-bounded-memory.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Test that basenc can work on files larger than the systems memory.
+
+# Copyright (C) 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+. "${srcdir=.}/tests/init.sh"; path_prepend_ ./src
+print_ver_ basenc
+
+test -w /dev/full && test -c /dev/full || skip_ 'this system lacks /dev/full'
+
+vm=$(get_min_ulimit_v_ basenc /dev/null)
+
+# Check all except for --base58.
+for algorithm in '--base64' '--base64url' '--base32' '--base32hex' '--base16' \
+ '--base2msbf' '--base2lsbf' '--z85'; do
+ timeout 2 $SHELL -c \
+ "(ulimit -v $(($vm+24000)) \
+ && basenc $algorithm </dev/full >/dev/null 2>err)"
+ ret=$?
+ test -f err || skip_ 'shell ulimit failure'
+ test $ret = 124 || {
+ fail=1
+ cat err
+ echo "basenc $algorithm used too much memory" >&2
+ }
+done
+
+Exit $fail
diff --git a/tests/local.mk b/tests/local.mk
index 52184b7ac..4c02cc65d 100644
--- a/tests/local.mk
+++ b/tests/local.mk
@@ -298,6 +298,7 @@ all_tests = \
tests/misc/basename.pl \
tests/basenc/base64.pl \
tests/basenc/basenc.pl \
+ tests/basenc/basenc-bounded-memory.sh \
tests/basenc/basenc-large.sh \
tests/misc/close-stdout.sh \
tests/chroot/chroot-fail.sh \
--
2.51.0
