# 'gem update --system' runnaways? requires more than 120mb me

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-update-system-runnaways-requires-more-than-120mb-me/115287>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [September 23, 2007, 6:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-update-system-runnaways-requires-more-than-120mb-me/115287 "2007-09-23T06:03:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2007, 6:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-update-system-runnaways-requires-more-than-120mb-me/115287/1 "2007-09-23T06:03:41Z")

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Is there a good/bad reason ‘gem update --system’ would gobble up all  
available memory then halt with message ‘killed’ to the console?  
(122072k free).

ATB,

MarkT

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**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2007, 12:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-update-system-runnaways-requires-more-than-120mb-me/115287/2 "2007-09-23T12:27:09Z")

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On Sep 22, 2007, at 21:03, Mark T wrote:

> Is there a good/bad reason ‘gem update --system’ would gobble up all  
> available memory then halt with message ‘killed’ to the console?  
> (122072k free).

Please file a bug with a console log.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 2:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-update-system-runnaways-requires-more-than-120mb-me/115287/3 "2007-09-25T02:06:48Z")

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On Sep 22, 2007, at 21:03 , Mark T wrote:

> Is there a good/bad reason ‘gem update --system’ would gobble up all  
> available memory then halt with message ‘killed’ to the console?  
> (122072k free).

‘killed’ kinda sounds like OS process limits were tripped…

Poke at the results of `ulimit -a`.