NAME

ulimit —

get and set process limits

LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <ulimit.h>

long
ulimit(int cmd, ...);

DESCRIPTION

The ulimit() function will get and set process limits. Currently this is limited to the maximum file size. The cmd argument is one of the following:

UL_GETFSIZE: will return the maximum file size in units of 512 blocks of the current process.
UL_SETFSIZE: will attempt to set the maximum file size of the current process and its children with the second argument expressed as a long.

RETURN VALUES

Upon successful completion, ulimit() returns the value requested; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

The ulimit() function will fail if:

[EINVAL]: The command specified was invalid.
[EPERM]: The limit specified to ulimit() would have raised the maximum limit value, and the caller is not the super-user.

STANDARDS

The ulimit() function conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”).

HISTORY

The ulimit() function first appeared in FreeBSD 5.0.

BUGS

The ulimit() function provides limited precision for setting and retrieving process limits. If there is a need for greater precision than the type long provides, the getrlimit(2) and setrlimit(2) functions should be considered.