st: set max_memory from command line

[Jasper Haller <jasper.haller@gess.uni-mannheim.de>]

Dear Statalisters,

I am using Stata 13.0 on a Linux machine and am trying to permanently 
change Stata's maximal memory allocation. I type the following line into 
the Unix command line (although the same thing happens when I set memory 
from within Stata):

. stata -b set max_memory 10g, permanently

If I now start Stata, I receive the following warning:

min_memory <= max_memory required
    min_memory and max_memory are limits you can set; see help memory.  The
    defaults are 0 and . (missing value), meaning zero and as much 
memory as
    the operating system will supply. The current values are 0 and 10g.

Calling

. query memory

from within Stata delivers the expected results:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Memory settings
        set maxvar          2048       (not settable in this version of 
Stata)
        set matsize         400        10-800; max. # vars in models
        set niceness        5          0-10
        set min_memory      0          0-10g
        set max_memory      10g        32m-1600g or .
        set segmentsize     32m        1m-32g

Now comes the strange part. If I try to do both things at once, i.e. I 
quit Stata and type into the Unix command line:

. stata query memory

Stata opens and I do not get the warning. Instead, I receive as output:

. query memory
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Memory settings
        set maxvar          2048       (not settable in this version of 
Stata)
        set matsize         400        10-800; max. # vars in models
        set niceness        5          0-10
        set min_memory      0          0-1600g
        set max_memory      .          32m-1600g or .
        set segmentsize     32m        1m-32g

So it looks as if my attempts to change the maximal amount of memory 
where successful only for cases where I open Stata and then work within 
Stata, but not when I call Stata in batch mode.

I have also verified that when I call a do-file in batch mode which 
contains a query memory command, it will display max_memory as missing.

Does anybody know why this happens, and are there ways to make my "set 
max_memory, permanently" commands apply to batch jobs also?

Many thanks for your help!
-Jasper

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