ulimit (3) - Linux Manuals

ulimit: get and set user limits

NAME

ulimit - get and set user limits

SYNOPSIS

#include <ulimit.h>

long ulimit(int cmd, long newlimit);

DESCRIPTION

Warning: this routine is obsolete. Use getrlimit(2), setrlimit(2), and sysconf(3) instead. For the shell command ulimit(), see bash(1).

The ulimit() call will get or set some limit for the calling process. The cmd argument can have one of the following values.

UL_GETFSIZE
Return the limit on the size of a file, in units of 512 bytes.
UL_SETFSIZE
Set the limit on the size of a file.
3
(Not implemented for Linux.) Return the maximum possible address of the data segment.
4
(Implemented but no symbolic constant provided.) Return the maximum number of files that the calling process can open.

RETURN VALUE

On success, ulimit() returns a nonnegative value. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

EPERM
An unprivileged process tried to increase a limit.

ATTRIBUTES

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
InterfaceAttributeValue
ulimit() Thread safetyMT-Safe

CONFORMING TO

SVr4, POSIX.1-2001. POSIX.1-2008 marks ulimit() as obsolete.

COLOPHON

This page is part of release 5.10 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

SEE ALSO

bash(1), getrlimit(2), setrlimit(2), sysconf(3)