bionic (3) getrlimit.3posix.gz
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This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface
may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface
may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
getrlimit, setrlimit — control maximum resource consumption
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/resource.h>
int getrlimit(int resource, struct rlimit *rlp);
int setrlimit(int resource, const struct rlimit *rlp);
DESCRIPTION
The getrlimit() function shall get, and the setrlimit() function shall set, limits on the consumption of
a variety of resources.
Each call to either getrlimit() or setrlimit() identifies a specific resource to be operated upon as well
as a resource limit. A resource limit is represented by an rlimit structure. The rlim_cur member
specifies the current or soft limit and the rlim_max member specifies the maximum or hard limit. Soft
limits may be changed by a process to any value that is less than or equal to the hard limit. A process
may (irreversibly) lower its hard limit to any value that is greater than or equal to the soft limit.
Only a process with appropriate privileges can raise a hard limit. Both hard and soft limits can be
changed in a single call to setrlimit() subject to the constraints described above.
The value RLIM_INFINITY, defined in <sys/resource.h>, shall be considered to be larger than any other
limit value. If a call to getrlimit() returns RLIM_INFINITY for a resource, it means the implementation
shall not enforce limits on that resource. Specifying RLIM_INFINITY as any resource limit value on a
successful call to setrlimit() shall inhibit enforcement of that resource limit.
The following resources are defined:
RLIMIT_CORE This is the maximum size of a core file, in bytes, that may be created by a process. A
limit of 0 shall prevent the creation of a core file. If this limit is exceeded, the
writing of a core file shall terminate at this size.
RLIMIT_CPU This is the maximum amount of CPU time, in seconds, used by a process. If this limit is
exceeded, SIGXCPU shall be generated for the process. If the process is catching or
ignoring SIGXCPU, or all threads belonging to that process are blocking SIGXCPU, the
behavior is unspecified.
RLIMIT_DATA This is the maximum size of a data segment of the process, in bytes. If this limit is
exceeded, the malloc() function shall fail with errno set to [ENOMEM].
RLIMIT_FSIZE This is the maximum size of a file, in bytes, that may be created by a process. If a write
or truncate operation would cause this limit to be exceeded, SIGXFSZ shall be generated for
the thread. If the thread is blocking, or the process is catching or ignoring SIGXFSZ,
continued attempts to increase the size of a file from end-of-file to beyond the limit
shall fail with errno set to [EFBIG].
RLIMIT_NOFILE This is a number one greater than the maximum value that the system may assign to a newly-
created descriptor. If this limit is exceeded, functions that allocate a file descriptor
shall fail with errno set to [EMFILE]. This limit constrains the number of file
descriptors that a process may allocate.
RLIMIT_STACK This is the maximum size of the initial thread's stack, in bytes. The implementation does
not automatically grow the stack beyond this limit. If this limit is exceeded, SIGSEGV
shall be generated for the thread. If the thread is blocking SIGSEGV, or the process is
ignoring or catching SIGSEGV and has not made arrangements to use an alternate stack, the
disposition of SIGSEGV shall be set to SIG_DFL before it is generated.
RLIMIT_AS This is the maximum size of total available memory of the process, in bytes. If this limit
is exceeded, the malloc() and mmap() functions shall fail with errno set to [ENOMEM]. In
addition, the automatic stack growth fails with the effects outlined above.
When using the getrlimit() function, if a resource limit can be represented correctly in an object of
type rlim_t, then its representation is returned; otherwise, if the value of the resource limit is equal
to that of the corresponding saved hard limit, the value returned shall be RLIM_SAVED_MAX; otherwise, the
value returned shall be RLIM_SAVED_CUR.
When using the setrlimit() function, if the requested new limit is RLIM_INFINITY, the new limit shall be
``no limit''; otherwise, if the requested new limit is RLIM_SAVED_MAX, the new limit shall be the
corresponding saved hard limit; otherwise, if the requested new limit is RLIM_SAVED_CUR, the new limit
shall be the corresponding saved soft limit; otherwise, the new limit shall be the requested value. In
addition, if the corresponding saved limit can be represented correctly in an object of type rlim_t then
it shall be overwritten with the new limit.
The result of setting a limit to RLIM_SAVED_MAX or RLIM_SAVED_CUR is unspecified unless a previous call
to getrlimit() returned that value as the soft or hard limit for the corresponding resource limit.
The determination of whether a limit can be correctly represented in an object of type rlim_t is
implementation-defined. For example, some implementations permit a limit whose value is greater than
RLIM_INFINITY and others do not.
The exec family of functions shall cause resource limits to be saved.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, getrlimit() and setrlimit() shall return 0. Otherwise, these functions shall
return −1 and set errno to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The getrlimit() and setrlimit() functions shall fail if:
EINVAL An invalid resource was specified; or in a setrlimit() call, the new rlim_cur exceeds the new
rlim_max.
EPERM The limit specified to setrlimit() would have raised the maximum limit value, and the calling
process does not have appropriate privileges.
The setrlimit() function may fail if:
EINVAL The limit specified cannot be lowered because current usage is already higher than the limit.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
None.
APPLICATION USAGE
If a process attempts to set the hard limit or soft limit for RLIMIT_NOFILE to less than the value of
{_POSIX_OPEN_MAX} from <limits.h>, unexpected behavior may occur.
If a process attempts to set the hard limit or soft limit for RLIMIT_NOFILE to less than the highest
currently open file descriptor +1, unexpected behavior may occur.
RATIONALE
It should be noted that RLIMIT_STACK applies ``at least'' to the stack of the initial thread in the
process, and not to the sum of all the stacks in the process, as that would be very limiting unless the
value is so big as to provide no value at all with a single thread.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
exec, fork(), malloc(), open(), sigaltstack(), sysconf(), ulimit()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <stropts.h>, <sys_resource.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition,
Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc
and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the event
of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.unix.org/online.html .
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