Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!think!ames!amdahl!twg-ap!dwh
From: dwh@twg-ap.UUCP (Dave Hamaker)
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.sys5
Subject: Is applying ulimit to pipes a bug?
Keywords: ulimit pipe filesystem
Message-ID: <242@twg-ap.UUCP>
Date: 16 May 88 23:44:34 GMT
Organization: The Wollongong Group, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 14

I find myself often needing/wanting to put filters before and/or after raw
devices and network connections.  Often, the volume of data involved exceeds
the ulimit file size controls.  If I don't raise the ulimit, the pipes fail.
This doesn't make sense to me, as pipes do not accumulate resources in the
same kind of way as disk files: an out-of-control disk file can use up all
the disk space; an out-of-control pipe consumes only renewable resources.
The ulimit documentation is inclusive on the matter; in fact, it sounds
confused.  If you ask me, I smell a bug of omission; the pipe type just rode
along with the file type during ulimit implementation, without much thought
about it.

-Dave Hamaker
The Wollongong Group
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