Is applying ulimit to pipes a bug?

[Dave Hamaker]

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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