ulimit man page on Solaris

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limit(1)			 User Commands			      limit(1)

NAME
       limit, ulimit, unlimit - set or get limitations on the system resources
       available to the current shell and its descendents

SYNOPSIS
       /usr/bin/ulimit [-f] [blocks]

   sh
       ulimit [- [HS] [a | cdfnstv]]

       ulimit [- [HS] [c | d | f | n | s | t | v]] limit

   csh
       limit [-h] [resource [limit]]

       unlimit [-h] [resource]

   ksh
       ulimit [-HSacdfnstv] [limit]

DESCRIPTION
   /usr/bin/ulimit
       The ulimit utility sets or reports the file-size writing limit  imposed
       on  files  written  by  the shell and its child processes (files of any
       size may be read). Only	a  process  with  appropriate  privileges  can
       increase the limit.

   sh
       The Bourne shell built-in function, ulimit, prints or sets hard or soft
       resource limits. These limits are described in getrlimit(2).

       If limit is not present, ulimit prints the specified limits. Any number
       of limits may be printed at one time. The -a option prints all limits.

       If  limit  is  present,	ulimit	sets the specified limit to limit. The
       string unlimited requests the largest valid limit. Limits  may  be  set
       for  only  one resource at a time. Any user may set a soft limit to any
       value below the hard limit. Any user may lower a	 hard  limit.  Only  a
       super-user may raise a hard limit. See su(1M).

       The  -H	option	specifies a hard limit. The -S option specifies a soft
       limit. If neither option is specified, ulimit will set both limits  and
       print the soft limit.

       The  following  options	specify	 the  resource	whose limits are to be
       printed or set. If no option is	specified,  the	 file  size  limit  is
       printed or set.

       -c    maximum core file size (in 512-byte blocks)

       -d    maximum size of data segment or heap (in kbytes)

       -f    maximum file size (in 512-byte blocks)

       -n    maximum file descriptor plus 1

       -s    maximum size of stack segment (in kbytes)

       -t    maximum CPU time (in seconds)

       -v    maximum size of virtual memory (in kbytes)

   csh
       The  C-shell  built-in  function,  limit, limits the consumption by the
       current process or any process it spawns, each not to exceed  limit  on
       the  specified  resource. If limit is omitted, print the current limit;
       if resource is omitted, display all limits.

       -h    Use hard limits instead of the current limits. Hard limits impose
	     a	ceiling	 on  the values of the current limits. Only the privi‐
	     leged user may raise the hard limits.

       resource is one of:

       cputime	       Maximum CPU seconds per process.

       filesize	       Largest single file allowed. Limited by the size of the
		       filesystem (see df(1M)).

       datasize	       The maximum size of a process's heap in kilobytes.

       stacksize       Maximum	stack  size for the process. The default stack
		       size is 2^64.

       coredumpsize    Maximum size of a core dump (file). This is limited  to
		       the size of the filesystem.

       descriptors     Maximum	number of file descriptors. Run the sysdef(1M)
		       command to obtain the maximum possible limits for  your
		       system.	The values reported by sysdef are in hexadeci‐
		       mal, but can be translated into decimal	numbers	 using
		       the bc(1) command.

       memorysize      Maximum size of virtual memory.

       limit is a number, with an optional scaling factor, as follows:

       nh	Hours (for cputime).

       nk	n kilobytes. This is the default for all but cputime.

       nm	n megabytes or minutes (for cputime).

       mm:ss	Minutes and seconds (for cputime).

       unlimit	removes a limitation on resource. If no resource is specified,
       then all resource limitations are removed. See the description  of  the
       limit command for the list of resource names.

       -h    Remove corresponding hard limits. Only the privileged user may do
	     this.

   ksh
       The Korn shell built-in function, ulimit, sets or displays  a  resource
       limit. The available resources limits are listed below. Many systems do
       not contain one or more of these limits.	 The  limit  for  a  specified
       resource	 is  set  when limit is specified. The value of limit can be a
       number in the unit specified below with each  resource,	or  the	 value
       unlimited.  The	-H  and -S flags specify whether the hard limit or the
       soft limit for the given resource  is  set.  A  hard  limit  cannot  be
       increased once it is set. A soft limit can be increased up to the value
       of the hard limit. If neither the -H or -S options  is  specified,  the
       limit applies to both. The current resource limit is printed when limit
       is omitted. In this case, the soft limit is printed unless -H is speci‐
       fied. When more than one resource is specified, then the limit name and
       unit is printed before the value.

       -a    Lists all of the current resource limits.

       -c    The number of 512-byte blocks on the size of core dumps.

       -d    The number of K-bytes on the size of the data area.

       -f    The number of 512-byte blocks on files written by child processes
	     (files of any size may be read).

       -n    The number of file descriptors plus 1.

       -s    The number of K-bytes on the size of the stack area.

       -t    The number of seconds (CPU time) to be used by each process.

       -v    The number of K-bytes for virtual memory.

       If no option is given, -f is assumed.

   Per-Shell Memory Parameters
       The  heapsize,  datasize,  and stacksize parameters are not system tun‐
       ables. The only controls for these are hard  limits,  set  in  a	 shell
       startup	file,  or system-wide soft limits, which, for the current ver‐
       sion of the Solaris OS, is 2^64bytes.

OPTIONS
       The following option is supported by ulimit:

       -f    Sets (or reports, if no blocks operand is present), the file size
	     limit in blocks. The -f option is also the default case.

OPERANDS
       The following operand is supported by ulimit:

       blocks	 The  number  of  512-byte  blocks to use as the new file size
		 limit.

EXAMPLES
   /usr/bin/ulimit
       Example 1 Limiting the Stack Size

       The following example limits the stack size to 512 kilobytes:

	 example% ulimit -s 512
	 example% ulimit -a
	 time(seconds)	       unlimited
	 file(blocks)		 100
	 data(kbytes)		 523256
	 stack(kbytes)		 512
	 coredump(blocks)	 200
	 nofiles(descriptors)	 64
	 memory(kbytes)		 unlimited

   sh/ksh
       Example 2 Limiting the Number of File Descriptors

       The following command limits the number of file descriptors to 12:

	 example$ ulimit -n 12
	 example$ ulimit -a
	 time(seconds)		  unlimited
	 file(blocks)		  41943
	 data(kbytes)		  523256
	 stack(kbytes)		  8192
	 coredump(blocks)	  200
	 nofiles(descriptors)	  12
	 vmemory(kbytes)	  unlimited

   csh
       Example 3 Limiting the Core Dump File Size

       The following command limits the size of a core dump  file  size	 to  0
       kilobytes:

	 example% limit coredumpsize 0
	 example% limit
	 cputime		 unlimited
	 filesize		 unlimited
	 datasize		 523256 kbytes
	 stacksize		 8192 kbytes
	 coredumpsize		 0 kbytes
	 descriptors		 64
	 memorysize		 unlimited

       Example 4 Removing the limitation for core file size

       The  following  command	removes the above limitation for the core file
       size:

	 example% unlimit coredumpsize
	 example% limit
	 cputime		 unlimited
	 filesize		 unlimited
	 datasize		 523256 kbytes
	 stacksize		 8192 kbytes
	 coredumpsize		 unlimited
	 descriptors		 64
	 memorysize		 unlimited

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment  variables
       that  affect  the  execution of ulimit: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MES‐
       SAGES, and NLSPATH.

EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values are returned by ulimit:

       0     Successful completion.

       >0    A request for a higher limit was rejected or an error occurred.

ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
       │      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     │	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   │
       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
       │Availability		     │SUNWcsu			   │
       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
       │Interface Stability	     │Standard			   │
       └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘

SEE ALSO
       bc(1), csh(1), ksh(1), sh(1),  df(1M),  su(1M),	swap(1M),  sysdef(1M),
       getrlimit(2), attributes(5), environ(5), standards(5)

SunOS 5.10			  20 May 2010			      limit(1)
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