ulimit considered braindamaged ?

[Brandon Allbery]

Quoted from <5486 at brl-smoke.ARPA> ["Re: ulimit considered braindamaged ?"], by gwyn at brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )...
+---------------
| The 1Mb initial ulimit is without doubt the single stupidest
| feature of vanilla UNIX System V.  Since only the super-user
| can raise the ulimit, one cannot even fix this in his .profile.
| The correct solution is to change the kernel's initial ulimit
| setting to be "infinite"; it is easy enough to lower it when
| so desired (e.g. in /etc/profile).  If you can't patch the
| kernel, then modify init(1M) to raise the ulimit, which it can
| do since it runs as super-user.  Failing that, you could try
| running a "pre-login shell" that is set-UID 0, which would
| simply raise the ulimit, change the UID, and exec a real shell.
+---------------

Don't forget cron.

The underlying assumption in many of the postings is that the ulimit is set
in init (or for init).  WRONG!  When the kernel constructs its own process
table entry prior to doing the fork/exec to start /etc/init, it sets the
cdlimit for itself.  Under the first version of Plexus System III I was
forced to adb an immediate move at the start of /unix; later releases put
it in /usr/src/utx/m68/cf/conf.c, making life much simpler.

++Brandon
-- 
``for is he not of the Children of Luthien?  Never shall that line fail, though
the years may lengthen beyond count.''  --J. R. R. Tolkien

Brandon S. Allbery	           UUCP: cbatt!cwruecmp!ncoast!tdi2!brandon
Tridelta Industries, Inc.         CSNET: ncoast!allbery at Case
7350 Corporate Blvd.	       INTERNET: ncoast!allbery%Case.CSNET at relay.CS.NET
Mentor, Ohio 44060		  PHONE: +1 216 255 1080 (home) +1 216 974 9210