GETRLIMIT(2)                BSD System Calls Manual               GETRLIMIT(2)

NAME
     getrlimit, setrlimit -- control maximum system resource consumption

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/resource.h>

     int
     getrlimit(int resource, struct rlimit *rlp);

     int
     setrlimit(int resource, const struct rlimit *rlp);

DESCRIPTION
     Limits on the consumption of system resources by the current process and
     each process it creates may be obtained with the getrlimit() call, and
     set with the setrlimit() call.

     The resource parameter is one of the following:

     RLIMIT_CORE     The largest size (in bytes) core file that may be cre-
                     ated.

     RLIMIT_CPU      The maximum amount of cpu time (in seconds) to be used by
                     each process.

     RLIMIT_DATA     The maximum size (in bytes) of the data segment for a
                     process; this defines how far a program may extend its
                     break with the sbrk(2) system call.

     RLIMIT_FSIZE    The largest size (in bytes) file that may be created.

     RLIMIT_MEMLOCK  The maximum size (in bytes) which a process may lock into
                     memory using the mlock(2) function.

     RLIMIT_NOFILE   The maximum number of open files for this process.

     RLIMIT_NPROC    The maximum number of simultaneous processes for this
                     user id.

     RLIMIT_RSS      The maximum size (in bytes) to which a process's resident
                     set size may grow.  This imposes a limit on the amount of
                     physical memory to be given to a process; if memory is
                     tight, the system will prefer to take memory from pro-
                     cesses that are exceeding their declared resident set
                     size.

     RLIMIT_STACK    The maximum size (in bytes) of the stack segment for a
                     process; this defines how far a program's stack segment
                     may be extended.  Stack extension is performed automati-
                     cally by the system.

     A resource limit is specified as a soft limit and a hard limit.  When a
     soft limit is exceeded a process may receive a signal (for example, if
     the cpu time or file size is exceeded), but it will be allowed to con-
     tinue execution until it reaches the hard limit (or modifies its resource
     limit).  The rlimit structure is used to specify the hard and soft limits
     on a resource,

           struct rlimit {
                   rlim_t  rlim_cur;       /* current (soft) limit */
                   rlim_t  rlim_max;       /* hard limit */
           };

     Only the super-user may raise the maximum limits.  Other users may only
     alter rlim_cur within the range from 0 to rlim_max or (irreversibly)
     lower rlim_max.

     Because this information is stored in the per-process information, this
     system call must be executed directly by the shell if it is to affect all
     future processes created by the shell; limit is thus a built-in command
     to csh(1) and ulimit is the sh(1) equivalent.

     The system refuses to extend the data or stack space when the limits
     would be exceeded in the normal way: a break call fails if the data space
     limit is reached.  When the stack limit is reached, the process receives
     a segmentation fault (SIGSEGV); if this signal is not caught by a handler
     using the signal stack, this signal will kill the process.

     A file I/O operation that would create a file larger that the process'
     soft limit will cause the write to fail and a signal SIGXFSZ to be gener-
     ated; this normally terminates the process, but may be caught.  When the
     soft cpu time limit is exceeded, a signal SIGXCPU is sent to the offend-
     ing process.

RETURN VALUES
     A 0 return value indicates that the call succeeded, changing or returning
     the resource limit.   A return value of -1 indicates that an error
     occurred, and an error code is stored in the global location errno.

ERRORS
     The getrlimit() and setrlimit() system calls will fail if:

     [EFAULT]           The address specified for rlp is invalid.

     [EINVAL]           resource is invalid.

     The setrlimit() call will fail if:

     [EINVAL]           The specified limit is invalid (e.g., RLIM_INFINITY or
                        lower than rlim_cur).

     [EPERM]            The limit specified would have raised the maximum
                        limit value and the caller is not the super-user.

LEGACY SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <sys/time.h>
     #include <sys/resource.h>

     The include files <sys/types.h> and <sys/time.h> are necessary.

COMPATIBILITY
     setrlimit() now returns with errno set to EINVAL in places that histori-
     cally succeeded.  It no longer accepts "rlim_cur = RLIM_INFINITY" for
     RLIM_NOFILE.  Use "rlim_cur = min(OPEN_MAX, rlim_max)".

SEE ALSO
     csh(1), sh(1), quota(2), sigaction(2), sigaltstack(2), sysctl(3),
     compat(5)

HISTORY
     The getrlimit() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.

4th Berkeley Distribution        June 4, 1993        4th Berkeley Distribution