Vis-a-vis ticket [678eb0c20a07f601aa2b11439b7ac49ecaf21e5c], if the memory footprint isn't a problem, the fact that the memory error was not propagated back to the client is.  In general I've found that errors when working with a local repository are informative and helpful.  (Things like "out of memory" are pretty clear.)  When the same errors are hit on a remote repository, however, they tend to be cryptic things like "1fossil: unknown command: Status:".

Errors on the server side do not get well-propagated to the client side.