One embodiment of the present invention provides a system with a mechanism that facilitates determining whether a kernel stack will overflow during development of an operating system. During execution of the operating system, the operating system executes a procedure. Upon entering the procedure, after the current stack pointer has been automatically adjusted to provide stack space for the procedure, the system retrieves the current stack pointer for the process, and determines the stack limit for the process. The system then compares the current stack pointer to the stack limit to determine if the process will cause, or is likely to cause a stack overflow. If a stack overflow will occur, or is likely to occur, the system indicates the existence of a stack overflow condition.