rsync out of memory at 8 MB although ulimit is 512MB

[mjacob at union06.de]

Hello again,

I encountered something amazing. First I thought there is not
enough memory allowed through ulimit. ulimit is now set to 
(almost) 512MB but rsync still gets out fo memory at 8MB. 

Can anyone tell me why?

That's my configuration:

  rsync version 2.6.2
  from AIX 5.3 to SuSE Linux 9 (also has rsync 2.6.2)
  ulimit -a (AIX)

ulimit -a AIX (source):
-------------------------
time(seconds)        unlimited
file(blocks)         2097151
data(kbytes)         131072
stack(kbytes)        512000
memory(kbytes)       512000
coredump(blocks)     2097151
nofiles(descriptors) unlimited

ulimit -a Linux (target):
-------------------------
core file size        (blocks, -c) unlimited
data seg size         (kbytes, -d) unlimited
file size             (blocks, -f) unlimited
max locked memory     (kbytes, -l) unlimited
max memory size       (kbytes, -m) unlimited
open files                    (-n) 1024
pipe size          (512 bytes, -p) 8
stack size            (kbytes, -s) unlimited
cpu time             (seconds, -t) unlimited
max user processes            (-u) 137216
virtual memory        (kbytes, -v) unlimited

rsync output:
------------------------------
$ rsync -a -v -v --rsh=ssh /thumbnail/0009/ <user>@<server>:/data/thumbnail/0009/
opening connection using ssh <server> -l <user> rsync --server -vvlogDtpr . /data/thumbnail/0009/
building file list ...
[sender] expand file_list to 131072 bytes, did move
[sender] expand file_list to 262144 bytes, did move
[sender] expand file_list to 524288 bytes, did move
[sender] expand file_list to 1048576 bytes, did move
[sender] expand file_list to 2097152 bytes, did move
[sender] expand file_list to 4194304 bytes, did move
[sender] expand file_list to 8388608 bytes, did move
ERROR: out of memory in receive_file_entry
rsync error: error allocating core memory buffers (code 22) at util.c(116)

Kind regards,
  Marco
-- 
Marco Jacob, PMP
Prisma GmbH, Germany