peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) (03/02/91)
Argh!!!! We run a network containing a wide variety of UNIX systems, with perpetually overflowing disks. If anyone is ever likely to be helped by ulimits, it'd be us. I have yet to discover a single case where ulimit has saved us from running out of disk space... on the contrary, it's been a perpetual pain. We used to maintain "rational" ulimits, but now just max them out whenever we run into one that's left over from the old days, or on a new system. Is there anyone out there who has ever had cause to be thankful for ulimits? -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' peter@ferranti.com +1 713 274 5180. 'U` "Have you hugged your wolf today?"
mike (03/03/91)
In an article, peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >Is there anyone out there who has ever had cause to be thankful for ulimits? Nope. Firmly entrenched in /etc/default/login: ULIMIT=2097152 -- Michael Stefanik, MGI Inc., Los Angeles| Opinions stated are not even my own. Title of the week: Systems Engineer | UUCP: ...!uunet!bria!mike ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Remember folks: If you can't flame MS-DOS, then what _can_ you flame?
art@pilikia.pegasus.com (Art Neilson) (03/04/91)
In article <-DT9=.F@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >Argh!!!! > >We run a network containing a wide variety of UNIX systems, with perpetually >overflowing disks. If anyone is ever likely to be helped by ulimits, it'd >be us. I have yet to discover a single case where ulimit has saved us from >running out of disk space... on the contrary, it's been a perpetual pain. >We used to maintain "rational" ulimits, but now just max them out whenever >we run into one that's left over from the old days, or on a new system. > >Is there anyone out there who has ever had cause to be thankful for ulimits? Not me. The ulimit only prevents you from creating a file of ulimit size or greater, it doesn't help at all of someone creates a zillion files each less than the ulimit and overflows a filesystem. -- Arthur W. Neilson III | INET: art@pilikia.pegasus.com Bank of Hawaii Tech Support | UUCP: uunet!ucsd!nosc!pilikia!art
bill@bilver.uucp (Bill Vermillion) (03/04/91)
In article <1991Mar03.211347.6220@pilikia.pegasus.com> art@pilikia.pegasus.com (Art Neilson) writes: >In article <-DT9=.F@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >>Is there anyone out there who has ever had cause to be thankful for ulimits? I wish I had it installed one time. I have a site (business/office oriented) that a user programmed something in his spreadsheet that just kept going until it filled the disk. It now has ulimits, but the only things they use are word processors, spreadsheets and databases. There is a ulimit there now. Keeps things in line. But again these are applications users who never even see a prompt. -- Bill Vermillion - UUCP: uunet!tarpit!bilver!bill : bill@bilver.UUCP
del@fnx.UUCP (Dag Erik Lindberg) (03/08/91)
>In article <-DT9=.F@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >Argh!!!! > >>Is there anyone out there who has ever had cause to be thankful for ulimits? > Sure, any time a program runs away filling up the disk. Maybe all your code is perfect and you never have that problem, but I have done it. When it really becomes a problem is if the command has been installed in cron, thinking it was fully debugged, and a new case showed up. A large value, like 20 meg, for ULIMIT seems to be adequate for anything a user would normally (or abnormally:-) do. Then, if a program is running unattended, in background or from cron, the disk doesn't fill up and bring the system to it's knees just because someone goofed up on an algorithm. -- del AKA Erik Lindberg uunet!pilchuck!fnx!del Who is John Galt?
peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) (03/12/91)
In article <-DT9=.F@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: > Is there anyone out there who has ever had cause to be thankful for ulimits? In article <901@fnx.UUCP> del@fnx.UUCP (Dag Erik Lindberg) writes: > Sure, any time a program runs away filling up the disk. In practice I find this sort of thing usually involves a command being called over and over again from cron. And ULIMIT doesn't help in that case. > A large value, like 20 meg, for ULIMIT ... You actually can depend on having 20 Meg free on all your disks? Here it's "can I borrow a couple of meg for a while?"... -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' peter@ferranti.com +1 713 274 5180. 'U` "Have you hugged your wolf today?"