Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!purdue!umd5!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.sys5
Subject: Re: Is applying ulimit to pipes a bug?
Keywords: ulimit pipe filesystem
Message-ID: <11575@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 19 May 88 14:52:01 GMT
References: <242@twg-ap.UUCP> <244@twg-ap.UUCP> <7928@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 20

>In article <244@twg-ap.UUCP> dwh@twg-ap.UUCP (Dave Hamaker) writes:
>>> If I don't raise the ulimit, the pipes fail.
>>Oh embarrassment!  I had come to this conclusion because of past experiences
>>and when I try it now, it doesn't fail.

In article <7928@brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>Don't be so quick to retract this.

Indeed not.

As it happens, in older Unixes, the `apparent' size of a pipe was reset
only when the reader caught up with the writer (or something along
those lines---I never looked at that code, and now my pipes are
sockets, but a friend says this).  It may be that if the reader is
perenially 1 block behind the writer, that the pipe eventually reaches
the ulimit.  I would have to look at the code to be sure, but it
should not be too hard to test.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris