1 files changed, 20 insertions, 3 deletions
diff --git a/src/libexpr/eval.cc b/src/libexpr/eval.cc
index 3d8ee9934016..2087c7c43ffb 100644
--- a/src/libexpr/eval.cc
+++ b/src/libexpr/eval.cc
@@ -129,7 +129,15 @@ string showType(const Value & v)
 }
 
 
-Symbol getName(const AttrName & name, EvalState & state, Env & env) {
+/* Called when the Boehm GC runs out of memory. */
+static void * oomHandler(size_t requested)
+{
+    /* Convert this to a proper C++ exception. */
+    throw std::bad_alloc();
+}
+
+
+static Symbol getName(const AttrName & name, EvalState & state, Env & env) {
     if (name.symbol.set()) {
         return name.symbol;
     } else {
@@ -168,8 +176,16 @@ EvalState::EvalState()
     countCalls = getEnv("NIX_COUNT_CALLS", "0") != "0";
 
 #if HAVE_BOEHMGC
-    static bool gcInitialised = true;
-    if (gcInitialised) {
+    static bool gcInitialised = false;
+    if (!gcInitialised) {
+
+        /* Initialise the Boehm garbage collector.  This isn't
+           necessary on most platforms, but for portability we do it
+           anyway. */
+        GC_INIT();
+
+        GC_oom_fn = oomHandler;
+
         /* Set the initial heap size to something fairly big (25% of
            physical RAM, up to a maximum of 384 MiB) so that in most
            cases we don't need to garbage collect at all.  (Collection
@@ -193,6 +209,7 @@ EvalState::EvalState()
             debug(format("setting initial heap size to %1% bytes") % size);
             GC_expand_hp(size);
         }
+
         gcInitialised = true;
     }
 #endif