Is there a way to increase the stack size in c#?
The big bad warning
If you use recursion in a program and reach a point where having a StackOverflowException is an actual threat, please do not consider increasing the stack size as a valid solution.
If you encounter a StackOverflowException you are doing something very wrong; you should instead be using a Stack<T> for depth-first processing, or a Queue<T> for breadth-first processing. Example.
The solution
This can be achieved by using editbin.exe, which is installed with this package;
Find the location of editbin.exe, mine was located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.14.26428\bin\Hostx64\x64\editbin.exe, I would suggest using Everything by voidtools in lieu of Microsoft's awful search to find this.
Set the stack size manually
Navigate to your bin folder and execute the following:
"<full path of editbin.exe>" /stack:<stack size in bytes, decimal> <your executable name>
For example I executed this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.14.26428\bin\Hostx64\x64\EDITBIN.EXE" /stack:2097152 ExampleProgram.exe
Which set the stack reserve size to 2MB.
With this I was capable of reaching twice the recursion level; (1MB stack reserve on left, 2MB stack reserve on right).
Set the stack size automatically
Right click on your project and select 'Options', then click on 'Build Events' and add the following to your post-build events:
"<full path of editbin.exe>" /stack:<stack size in bytes, decimal> "$(TargetPath)"
For example I added
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.14.26428\bin\Hostx64\x64\EDITBIN.EXE" /stack:2097152 "$(TargetPath)"
This will run editbin.exe every time you build your executable.
Note: You will see a lot lower level of recursion reached when running your program from Visual Studio as you will from running it explicitly via explorer or cmd. You will still however see a 2x increase in the level of recursion met if moving from a 1MB stack reserve to a 2MB stack reserve.