PRB: Setup Toolkit Error "Parser out of memory"

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows version 3.1

SYMPTOMS

When the setup program created by the Microsoft Setup Toolkit is reading the script, the following error message is given:

   Parser out of memory

CAUSE

This means that the script interpreter has exceeded its memory limit on some memory object. The memory object could be a data segment, a code segment, or one of the parser tables. There is no way to know which memory object it is. The chance of running out of interpreter table space is rare -- you will almost always run out of code or data space first.

RESOLUTION

Try breaking the script into multiple scripts and try running them independently. This can be done by using Microsoft Test's RUN command. For example:

      RUN "_mstest script1.mst"

1. Eliminate excess code, by using only those .INC files that are needed. For example, if you are not using the registration database, do not include MSREGDB.INC.

2. Within each .INC files, comment out unused functions.

3. DLL calls are expensive in terms of code generation. If a script makes frequent calls to a function in a DLL, it might be better to place the call to that function in a wrapper function/subroutine within the script file. This will reduce memory consumption.

4. Finally, consider using text files to hold your strings and read them in at run time.

REFERENCE

For additional information, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: Q87455

TITLE     : PRB: Test "Parser Out of Memory" Error