ulimit vs /etc/security/limits.conf

Question

What is the difference between:

a) using the ulimit command to set a limit on a resource?

b) editing the /etc/security/limits.conf file for the same purpose?

e.g. what is the entry that should be placed in /etc/security/limits.conf to account for ulimit -n 8192 ?

Is the limit set by ulimit -n 8192 soft or hard?

For whom is it being set?

For the user running the command?

Or it becomes the default entry as if we were using domain=* in /etc/security/limits.conf

13dimitar · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-10 13:28:39Z

1

Changes made by ulimit will apply only to the current processes. If you need to make them permanent, you must edit /etc/security/limits.conf

About your 3rd question .. it depends what you run on your server, for certain applications you might need a higher number.

ulimit -n sets soft limit, ulimit -Hn sets hard limit.

answered Jan 12 '17 at 12:57

13dimitar

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Changes made by ulimit apply to the current process. – JdeBP Jan 12 '17 at 13:20
@JdeBP does this affect spawned processes too? they will inherit the ulimit set by their parent (or ancestor in general)? – pkaramol Jan 12 '17 at 15:33
Not if they have already been forked, which parts of the current session may well have been. – JdeBP Jan 12 '17 at 16:47

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