NAME

       ulimit - set or report file size limit

SYNOPSIS

       ulimit [-f][blocks]

DESCRIPTION

       The  ulimit utility shall set or report 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.

OPTIONS

       The  ulimit  utility  shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2,
       Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The following option shall be supported:

       -f     Set (or report, if no blocks operand is present), the file size limit in  blocks.  The  -f  option
              shall also be the default case.

OPERANDS

       The following operand shall be supported:

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

STDIN

       Not used.

INPUT FILES

       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of ulimit:

       LANG   Provide  a  default  value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the
              Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization  Variables  for
              the  precedence  of  internationalization  variables  used  to  determine  the  values  of  locale
              categories.)

       LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values  of  all  the  other  internationalization
              variables.

       LC_CTYPE
              Determine  the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for
              example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).

       LC_MESSAGES
              Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic  messages
              written to standard error.

       NLSPATH
              Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES .

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

       Default.

STDOUT

       The  standard  output shall be used when no blocks operand is present. If the current number of blocks is
       limited, the number of blocks in the current limit shall be written in the following format:

              "%d\n", <number of 512-byte blocks>

       If there is no current limit on the number of blocks, in the POSIX locale the following format  shall  be
       used:

              "unlimited\n"

STDERR

       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES

       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

       None.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0     Successful completion.

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

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE

       Since  ulimit  affects  the current shell execution environment, it is always provided as a shell regular
       built-in. If it is called in a separate utility execution environment, such as one of the following:

              nohup ulimit -f 10000
              env ulimit 10000

       it does not affect the file size limit of the caller's environment.

       Once a limit has been decreased by a process, it cannot be increased (unless appropriate  privileges  are
       involved), even back to the original system limit.

EXAMPLES

       Set the file size limit to 51200 bytes:

              ulimit -f 100

RATIONALE

       None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       The System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, ulimit()

COPYRIGHT

       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition,
       Standard  for  Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
       Inc and The Open Group. 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.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

IEEE/The Open Group                                   2003                                             ULIMIT(P)