there's a buffer size problem that is very rarely hit by any normal programs but appears when compiling some of the nuttier lunix code. solution: if a line of code is longer than the default buffer size (30k) then we realloc the buffer. this isn't currently triggered by any plan9 code and will hopefully never be. for an example of what could happen in loonix-land see this gcc-parsed code: http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~mirtchov/screenshots/ffmpeg.gif andrey