title: What are the currently possible values for sys.maxsize?
body: <p>In <a href="https://docs.python.org/2/library/sys.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the latest Python 2 documentation</a>:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p><strong>sys.maxsize</strong></p>
    
    <p>The largest positive integer supported by the platform’s
    Py_ssize_t type, and thus the maximum size lists, strings, dicts, and
    many other containers can have.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>In <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/sys.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the latest Python 3 documentation</a>:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p><strong>sys.maxsize</strong></p>
    
    <p>An integer giving the maximum value a variable of type
    Py_ssize_t can take. It’s usually 2**31 - 1 on a 32-bit platform and
    2**63 - 1 on a 64-bit platform.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>The value <code>sys.maxsize</code> is <a href="https://github.com/xflux-gui/xflux-gui/blob/master/download-xflux.py" rel="nofollow noreferrer">in this file</a> used on Python 2 with the values specified in the Python 3 documentation:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>2**31 - 1 = 2147483647;</li>
  <li>2**63 - 1 = 9223372036854775807.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>My question is: what are the possible values <code>sys.maxsize</code> can take in Python 2? Are these two part of the possible values or not? Are there any other possible values (on other platforms or operating systems, for example)? It would be interesting to find the possible values that it can take in Python 3 too.</p>
  
  <p>Related questions:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39716228/confused-about-pythons-sys-maxsize">Confused About Python&#39;s sys.maxsize</a></li>
  </ul>