Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ll-xn!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!uw-june!uw-entropy!dataio!pilchuck!ssc!happym!kent
From: kent@happym.UUCP (Kent Forschmiedt)
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.sys5
Subject: Re: Is applying ulimit to pipes a bug?
Keywords: ulimit pipe filesystem
Message-ID: <439@happym.UUCP>
Date: 18 May 88 18:01:19 GMT
References: <242@twg-ap.UUCP>
Reply-To: kent@happym.UUCP (Kent Forschmiedt)
Organization: Happy Man Corp.
Lines: 21

[ In article <242@twg-ap.UUCP> dwh@twg-ap.UUCP (Dave Hamaker)
  notes that his ulimit is applied to pipes as well as regular
  files, and that he feels that it is very stupid. ]

I think that ulimit, at least as implemented, and especially as
configured in most distributions, is extremely stupid.  Fortunately
for me, Motorola made it a tunable parameter, so I can make it VERY
large and seldom worry about it.  For others, it is not so easy.
I have told a few people how to use a fake init:

/* init.fake.c    make a bootable floppy before you try this */
main(argc,argv) char **argv;
{ ulimit(2,BIGNUM); execv("/etc/init.real", argv); }


I have never heard anyone say anything nice about ulimit, though -
only, "How do I get around it?"  To me, that is a sure indication
of a misfeature.
-- 
--
	Kent Forschmiedt -- kent@happym.UUCP, tikal!camco!happym!kent
	Happy Man Corporation  206-282-9598