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 .