ulimit

NAME

SYNOPSIS

ulimit [-HSabcdefiklmnpqrstuvxPT [limit]]

DESCRIPTION

Provides control over the resources available to the shell and to processes started by it, on systems that allow such control.  The -H and -S options specify that the hard or soft limit is set for the given resource.  A hard limit cannot be increased by a non-root user once it is set; a soft limit may be increased up to the value of the hard limit.  If neither -H nor -S is specified, both the soft and hard limits are set.  The value of limit can be a number in the unit specified for the resource or one of the special values hard, soft, or unlimited, which stand for the current hard limit, the current soft limit, and no limit, respectively.  If limit is omitted, the current value of the soft limit of the resource is printed, unless the -H option is given.  When more than one resource is specified, the limit name and unit are printed before the value.  Other options are interpreted as follows:

-a     All current limits are reported

-b     The maximum socket buffer size

-c     The maximum size of core files created

-d     The maximum size of a process's data segment

-e     The maximum scheduling priority ("nice")

-f     The maximum size of files written by the shell and its children

-i     The maximum number of pending signals

-k     The maximum number of kqueues that may be allocated

-l     The maximum size that may be locked into memory

-m     The maximum resident set size (many systems do not honor this limit)

-n     The maximum number of open file descriptors (most systems do not allow this value to be set)

-p     The pipe size in 512-byte blocks (this may not be set)

-q     The maximum number of bytes in POSIX message queues

-r     The maximum real-time scheduling priority

-s     The maximum stack size

-t     The maximum amount of cpu time in seconds

-u     The maximum number of processes available to a single user

-v     The maximum amount of virtual memory available to the shell and, on some systems, to its children

-x     The maximum number of file locks

-P     The maximum number of pseudoterminals

-T     The maximum number of threads

If limit is given, and the -a option is not used, limit is the new value of the specified resource.  If no option is given, then -f is assumed.  Values are in 1024-byte increments, except for -t, which is in seconds; -p, which is in units of 512-byte blocks; -P, -T, -b, -k, -n, and -u, which are unscaled values; and, when in Posix mode, -c and -f, which are in 512-byte increments.  The return status is 0 unless an invalid option or argument is supplied, or an error occurs while setting a new limit.

SEE ALSO

This is extracted from the main bash man page, see there for more details.