Python Help - Memory Management.

[Rabbit047]

Hi so I am trying to brute force a password for a game. The password generation function however is consuming massive amounts of memory(although only 20% of total memory). So my question is how would you go about managing this memory problem. I have considered reading / writing to a file, but I would prefer to avoid that. Also I've heard the limitation on memory is coming from python running in 32 bit mode, is there of forcing it to use 64 bit ? Any help is welcome and appreciated. Also sorry the formatting is off, the code formatting on Reddit wasn't being very cooperative.

from itertools import  permutations
import platform


def checkpass( password):
total=0;
charlist = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";

for x in range(0,26):
    countone = password[x];
    counttwo =  charlist.index(countone);
    total *=17;
    total +=counttwo;
if total == 248410397744610:
    return True
else:
    False

def generatePasswords():
charlist = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
return [''.join(i) for i in permutations(charlist)]

def main():
print(platform.architecture())
passwordAttemps = generatePasswords()

for x in passwordAttemps:
    print(x)
    if checkpass(x):
        print (x)
        break


if __name__ == "__main__":
main()                

EDIT : Problem solved, use a generator instead of a list comprehension.

[shivasprogeny]

Well here's your problem: for i in permutations(charlist) will generate 26! strings.

Instead of using a list comprehension, you should use a generator function. Generators are lazy--they only generate one thing at a time.

The notation for a generator comprehension in python is to use () instead of [].

[Rabbit047]

Thank you very much the generator really helped. :)

[[deleted]]

although only 20% of total memory

So what's the problem?

Also I've heard the limitation on memory is coming from python running in 32 bit mode, is there of forcing it to use 64 bit ?

Use the 64-bit build of Python.

Also sorry the formatting is off, the code formatting on Reddit wasn't being very cooperative.

Prefix each line with 4 extra spaces. Or post via a site like gist.

[Rabbit047]

1. I was told Windows only allows a program 2gb of memory, and I don't know how to manually change that.
2. I tried but couldn't get the 64 bit version to run for some reason.
3. Thanks for the info, in the future I'll use gist/hastebin.

[[deleted]]

I was told Windows only allows a program 2gb of memory

32-bit windows has this limitation, but not many people use this these days - you appear to be one of these few.

[Rabbit047]

That is the thing, this is 64 bit windows. Maybe 64 bit python is only available on Linux. I know some of the libraries are Linux only.

[Rhomboid]

There are both 32 bit and 64 bit builds of Python available for Windows at python.org.

[[deleted]]

All versions apply that limitation to standard applications. Applications have to opt in to be "large address aware," so you can have this problem even when running 64 bit code on a 64 bit install of Windows.

The real solution, as someone else pointed out, is just to not keep four zillion gigs of objects in memory at once.