GETRLIMIT(2)GETRLIMIT(2)NAME
getrlimit, setrlimit - control maximum system resource consumption
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <sys/resource.h>
getrlimit(resource, rlp)
int resource;
struct rlimit *rlp;
setrlimit(resource, rlp)
int resource;
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_CPU the maximum amount of cpu time (in seconds) to be used
by each process.
RLIMIT_FSIZE the largest size, in bytes, of any single file that
may be created.
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_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.
RLIMIT_CORE the largest size, in bytes, of a core file that may be
created.
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 processes that are exceeding their
declared resident set size.
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 is exceeded), but it will be allowed to continue 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 {
int rlim_cur; /* current (soft) limit */
int 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.
An “infinite” value for a limit is defined as RLIM_INFINITY
(0x7fffffff).
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).
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 that is too large will
cause a signal SIGXFSZ to be generated; this normally terminates the
process, but may be caught. When the soft cpu time limit is exceeded,
a signal SIGXCPU is sent to the offending process.
RETURN VALUE
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 possible errors are:
[EFAULT] The address specified for rlp is invalid.
[EPERM] The limit specified to setrlimit would have
raised the maximum limit value, and the caller is not
the super-user.
SEE ALSOcsh(1), sigvec(2), sigstack(2)BUGS
There should be limit and unlimit commands in sh(1) as well as in csh.
4th Berkeley Distribution May 13, 1986 GETRLIMIT(2)