opensolaris man page for ulimit

ulimit(2)							   System Calls 							 ulimit(2)

NAME
       ulimit - get and set process limits

SYNOPSIS
       #include <ulimit.h>

       long ulimit(int cmd, /* newlimit */...);

DESCRIPTION
       The  ulimit() function provides for control over process limits. It is effective in limiting the growth of regular files. Pipes are limited
       to PIPE_MAX bytes.

       The cmd values, defined in <ulimit.h>, include:

       UL_GETFSIZE    Return the soft file size limit of the process. The limit is in units of 512-byte blocks and  is	inherited  by  child  pro-
		      cesses.  Files of any size can be read. The return value is the integer part of the soft file size limit divided by 512.	If
		      the result cannot be represented as a long int, the result is unspecified.

       UL_SETFSIZE    Set the hard and soft file size limits for output operations of the process to the value of the second argument, taken as  a
		      long  int.  Any  process	may  decrease  its own hard limit, but only a process with appropriate privileges may increase the
		      limit. The new file size limit is returned. The hard and soft file size limits are set to the specified value multiplied	by
		      512.  If the result would overflow an rlimit_t, the actual value set is unspecified.

       UL_GMEMLIM     Get the maximum possible break value (see brk(2)).

       UL_GDESLIM     Get the current value of the maximum number of open files per process configured in the system.

RETURN VALUES
       Upon  successful  completion,  ulimit() returns the value of the requested limit.  Otherwise, -1 is returned, the limit is not changed, and
       errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
       The ulimit() function will fail if:

       EINVAL	 The cmd argument is not valid.

       EPERM	 A process that has not asserted {PRIV_SYS_RESOURCE} in its effective set is trying to increase its file size limit.

USAGE
       Since all return values are permissible in a successful situation, an application wishing to check for error situations should set errno to
       0, then call ulimit(), and if it returns -1, check if errno is non-zero.

       The getrlimit() and setrlimit() functions provide a more general interface for controlling process limits, and are preferred over ulimit().
       See getrlimit(2).

ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Standard			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO
       brk(2), getrlimit(2), write(2), attributes(5), privileges(5), standards(5)

SunOS 5.11							    1 Feb 2003								 ulimit(2)