ULIMIT(3)              FreeBSD Library Functions Manual              ULIMIT(3)

NAME

     ulimit - get and set process limits

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <ulimit.h>

     long
     ulimit(int cmd, ...);

DESCRIPTION

     The ulimit() function will get and set process limits.  Currently this is
     limited to the maximum file size.  The cmd argument is one of the
     following:

     UL_GETFSIZE  will return the maximum file size in units of 512 blocks of
                  the current process.

     UL_SETFSIZE  will attempt to set the maximum file size of the current
                  process and its children with the second argument expressed
                  as a long.

RETURN VALUES

     Upon successful completion, ulimit() returns the value requested;
     otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set
     to indicate the error.

ERRORS

     The ulimit() function will fail if:

     [EINVAL]           The command specified was invalid.

     [EPERM]            The limit specified to ulimit() would have raised the
                        maximum limit value, and the caller is not the super-
                        user.

SEE ALSO

     getrlimit(2)

STANDARDS

     The ulimit() function conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 ("POSIX.1").

HISTORY

     The ulimit() function first appeared in FreeBSD 5.0.

BUGS

     The ulimit() function provides limited precision for setting and
     retrieving process limits.  If there is a need for greater precision than
     the type long provides, the getrlimit(2) and setrlimit(2) functions
     should be considered.

FreeBSD 15.1-STABLE-HBSD        January 4, 2003                      ULIMIT(3)