xenial (1) ulimit.1posix.gz

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PROLOG
       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
       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 POSIX.1‐2008, 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 POSIX.1‐2008, 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  Base  Definitions  volume  of  POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility
       Syntax Guidelines

       The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008, ulimit()


       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 .

       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have  been  introduced
       during   the   conversion  of  the  source  files  to  man  page  format.  To  report  such  errors,  see
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .