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From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: ulimit considered stupid
Message-ID: <8977@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 10-Oct-87 16:20:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: mimsy.8977
Posted: Sat Oct 10 16:20:44 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Oct-87 18:49:34 EDT
References: <6497@oliveb.UUCP> <142700003@tiger.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 32

In article <142700003@tiger.UUCP> rjd@tiger.UUCP writes:
>... Seriously, init was not meant to start up shell scripts....
>If you want to raise the ulimit for login sessions, GET THE SOURCE
>to /bin/login

From whom?  These poor SysV binary people have no source and no
legal access to source.

>and put the ulimit call in there before it setuid's and execs
>the shell. ... It was not meant to [alter the limit for cron-
>inspired processes], the original question was inquiring about
>raising the ulimit for logins.

Most likely the original question was phrased that way when
in fact the questioner really meant `for the entire system'.

>  "terribly broken and a major oversight"????  Sorry, I bet they did not
>know that you had an INFINITE amount of space available and were not
>concerned with limiting it.  Since I bet somehow that you do not have
>an infinite space, you probably DO need a limiter.

Better switch to 4.3BSD, then, since ulimit has no effect on total
space usage.  Yes, it prevents you from accidentally filling a file
system with `infi-loop > foo', but if you intend to limit space you
need a system like quotas, not a per-file limit.  (And quotas on
a single user system seem rather silly to me.)

(N.B.: 4BSD also has `limit filesize', which works in essentially
the same manner as `ulimit'.)
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris