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From: jc@minya.UUCP (John Chambers)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: Sys 5.3 vi file-size limit?
Message-ID: <452@minya.UUCP>
Date: 31 Jan 91 03:46:20 GMT
References: <447@minya.UUCP> <1991Jan14.090434.2296@hawkmoon.MN.ORG>
Lines: 30

In article <1991Jan14.090434.2296@hawkmoon.MN.ORG>, det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) writes:
> jc@minya.UUCP (John Chambers) writes:
> 
> >This
> >isn't a ulimit problem; I've verified that vi (like all the rest
> >of my applications) has the largest ulimit that I've convinced
> >the system to accept, much large than half a Mbyte.
> 
> I'm confused here.  The ulimit basically applies to a particular shell session
> and is not attachable to a specific application, like vi.  Perhaps you meant to
> say that "I have verified that my ulimit is >>.5MB?"

No, the ulimit is maintained by the kernel, on a per-process basis; it
has nothing to do with a "shell session" (which is a concept that is not
maintained by the kernel).  A process's ulimit is inherited from the parent
and may be decreased (or increased if you are a super-user) by using the
ulimit(2) system call.

If, within vi, you say
	:!ulimit
then the ulimit printed is that of the ulimit process, which inherited
it from the shell (started by the '!'), which inherited it from the vi
process.  Unless you are a super-user, the number produced is <= the ulimit 
of the vi process.

-- 
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