ulimit(C)

ulimit -- set or report file-size limit

Syntax

ulimit [ -f ] [ blocks ]

Description

ulimit sets or reports the file-size writing limit on the shell and its child processes. The -f option sets the file-size limit in 512-byte blocks. If no blocks argument is provided, ulimit reports the file-size limit. Only root can increase the limit.

ulimit without arguments will either report the file-size limit as a decimal integer, or the message unlimited.

Examples

To set the file-size limit to 25600 bytes:

ulimit -f 50

Limitations

ulimit is implemented as a built-in command of the Korn and Bourne shells.

ulimit has no effect on the size of files that may be read.

Standards conformance

ulimit is conformant with:

ISO/IEC DIS 99452:1992, Information technology Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) Part 2: Shell and Utilities (IEEE Std 1003.21992);
X/Open CAE Specification, Commands and Utilities, Issue 4, 1992.

Notices

A version of ulimit that can handle files greater than 2GB is available in /u95/bin. See ulimit(1) for more information.