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System Callsulimit(2)


NAME

 ulimit - get and set process limits

SYNOPSIS

 
#include <ulimit.h>
long ulimit(int cmd, /* newlimit */...);

DESCRIPTION

 

The ulimit() function provides for control over process limits. It is effective in limiting the growth of regular files. Pipes are limited to PIPE_MAX bytes.

The cmd values, defined in <ulimit.h>, include:

UL_GETFSIZE
Return the soft file size limit of the process. The limit is in units of 512-byte blocks and is inherited by child processes. Files of any size can be read. The return value is the integer part of the soft file size limit divided by 512. If the result cannot be represented as a long int, the result is unspecified.
UL_SETFSIZE
Set the hard and soft file size limits for output operations of the process to the value of the second argument, taken as a long int. Any process may decrease its own hard limit, but only a process with appropriate privileges may increase the limit. The new file size limit is returned. The hard and soft file size limits are set to the specified value multiplied by 512. If the result would overflow an rlimit_t, the actual value set is unspecified.
UL_GMEMLIM
Get the maximum possible break value (see brk(2)).
UL_GDESLIM
Get the current value of the maximum number of open files per process configured in the system.

RETURN VALUES

 

Upon successful completion, ulimit() returns the value of the requested limit. Otherwise, -1 is returned, the limit is not changed, and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

 

The ulimit() function will fail if:

EINVAL
The cmd argument is not valid.
EPERM
A process not having appropriate privileges attempts to increase its file size limit.

USAGE

 

Since all return values are permissible in a successful situation, an application wishing to check for error situations should set errno to 0, then call ulimit(), and if it returns -1, check if errno is non-zero.

The getrlimit() and setrlimit() functions provide a more general interface for controlling process limits, and are preferred over ulimit(). See getrlimit(2).

SEE ALSO

 

brk(2), getrlimit(2), write(2)


SunOS 5.9Go To TopLast Changed 18 Apr 1997

 
      
      
Copyright 2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms.