CentOS 7: ulimit using "strange" value.

fanoflq · 03-16-2017, 01:16 PM

The hard and soft ulimits for "max user processes"
is 3889.
But in 20-nproc.conf , it is 4096 and unlimited.
Where does the 3889 come from?

Code:

$ ulimit -u
3889
$ ulimit -a | grep -i process
max user processes              (-u) 3889
$ ls
20-nproc.conf
$ cat 20-nproc.conf 
# Default limit for number of user's processes to prevent
# accidental fork bombs.
# See rhbz #432903 for reasoning.

*          soft    nproc     4096
root       soft    nproc     unlimited

$ ulimit -H -u
3889

#Nothing is set in in /etc/security/limits.conf

X-LFS-2010 · 03-16-2017, 07:46 PM

mine reads a different value and i had not set it to any

/* maxchild = sysconf (_SC_CHILD_MAX); */

it's likely based on either who built bash (if they put in a hard limit), your system or kernel headers (if they aren't incorrect - they can get mangled)

TRY THIS:

# sysctl -a

the real answer should be that it was taken from kernel resources and depends on more than one resource (ie to run a process you need enough kernel resources to use that process at least for forking) - but likely the setting is simply "somewhat arbitrary"

but you'll have to either use sysctl and set it yourself, or read the source and compile bash the way you want it, if you want to set a limit given some agenda (ie, a ulimit design for limiting max telnet logins a shell spawns - far different from kernel child limit)