Re: [tlug] ulimit

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

>>>>> "simon" == simon colston <simon@example.com> writes:

    simon> I would expect to be able to reset the limit back to the
    simon> hard limit set in my limits.conf.

RTFM setrlimit(2), bash(1).  Only root can _raise_ hard limits; for
processes owned by any other user, limit setting can only decrease
them.  bash's implementatation of ulimit sets both unless the -H or -S
option is specified.

    simon> Also if I log in as simon,

How do you log in?  It is the login(1) program that reads
/etc/security/limits.conf, so that needs to be part of the process.

    simon> (without su-ing to simon from root) I get,
    simon> $ ulimit -n
    simon> 1024

    simon> and not the 8192 I would expect.

Check the rc files (/etc/profile, ~/.login, ~/.bashrc) for ulimits.
Also, it's apparently possible to set limits from the GECOS field in
/etc/passwd, but I don't know anything more about that.

Finally, note that the particular limit you are trying to set (fds)
may require a kernel recompile to raise:

   EPERM  A non‐superuser tries to use setrlimit() to increase the soft or
          hard limit above the current hard limit, or a superuser tries to
          increase RLIMIT_NOFILE above the current kernel maximum.

But there may be a sysctl to change this (I don't see any obvious
candidates in my /proc, though).

-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
               Ask not how you can "do" free software business;
              ask what your business can "do for" free software.