diff -r 2c04d2102534 Lib/test/test_re.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_re.py	Sat Dec 01 19:34:16 2012 +0100
+++ b/Lib/test/test_re.py	Sun Dec 02 00:07:04 2012 +0200
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-from test.support import verbose, run_unittest, gc_collect
+from test.support import verbose, run_unittest, gc_collect, bigmemtest, _2G
 import io
 import re
 from re import Scanner
@@ -949,6 +949,17 @@
         # Test behaviour when not given a string or pattern as parameter
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, re.compile, 0)
 
+    @bigmemtest(size=_2G, memuse=2, dry_run=False)
+    def test_large(self, size):
+        s = 'a' * size
+        m = re.search('$', s)
+        self.assertIsNotNone(m)
+        self.assertEqual(m.start(), size)
+        self.assertEqual(m.end(), size)
+        r, n = re.subn('', '', s)
+        self.assertEqual(r, s)
+        self.assertEqual(n, size + 1)
+
 def run_re_tests():
     from test.re_tests import tests, SUCCEED, FAIL, SYNTAX_ERROR
     if verbose: