PRB: L2028 Error Caused by HEAPSIZE, STACKSIZE and DGROUP Size (49935)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft LINK for MS-DOS 5.01.21
  • Microsoft LINK for MS-DOS 5.1
  • Microsoft LINK for MS-DOS 5.13
  • Microsoft LINK for MS-DOS 5.15
  • Microsoft LINK for MS-DOS 5.3
  • Microsoft LINK for MS-DOS 5.31.009
  • Microsoft LINK for MS-DOS 5.5
  • Microsoft LINK for MS-DOS 5.6
  • Microsoft LINK for OS/2 5.01.21
  • Microsoft LINK for OS/2 5.1

This article was previously published under Q49935

SYMPTOMS

An attempt to link an application fails and Microsoft LINK displays the following message:
L2028: Automatic data segment plus heap exceeds 64K

CAUSE

This error occurs when the segment containing the stack and data plus the near heap (DGROUP) exceeds 64K.

RESOLUTION

Use one of the following three methods to address this situation:
  • Reduce the amount of data in the default data segment.

    If the L2028 error occurs with object modules produced by the Microsoft C compiler, one or more of the following three techniques will decrease the amount of data in the default data segment.

    If the application uses the compact, large, or huge memory model, specify the /Gt3 compiler option switch to move any data item three bytes or larger from the default data segment (DGROUP) into a far data segment. If desired, you can specify a larger threshold.

    Remove data from DGROUP by declaring it as FAR (in an application designed for the Microsoft Windows operating system), or far, _far, or __far depending on the version of Microsoft C, C/C++, or Visual C++ you are using.

    If your application requires a large stack due to a great deal of local data (which is any non-static data declared in a function), declare that data as static to prevent it from being stored on the stack. Because this technique only moves the data to a different area in DGROUP, it must be combined with one of the techniques described earlier to remove it from DGROUP.
  • Use the /ST linker option switch or the STACKSIZE option in the module definition (.DEF) file to reduce the size of the stack.
  • Use the /CP linker option switch or the HEAPSIZE option in the .DEF file to reduce the amount of near heap space that the application requests. NOTE: this switch is only useful for building DOS applications. If you're building Windows applications, HEAPSIZE must be used.
The L2028 error was omitted from the linker error messages in the Microsoft C "CodeView and Utilities, Microsoft Editor, Mixed-Language Programming Guide" manual for version 5.1.

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:10/23/2003
Keywords:kb16bitonly KB49935