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ULIMIT(1P)                 POSIX Programmer's Manual                ULIMIT(1P)
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  vari-
                 ables  that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions vol-
                 ume of POSIX.1-2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization  Vari-
                 ables  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 sepa-
       rate 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()
COPYRIGHT
       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 Electri-
       cal 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.ker-
       nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group                  2013                           ULIMIT(1P)