LIMITS.CONF(5)

NAME
limits.conf - configuration file for the pam_limits module

DESCRIPTION

The syntax of the lines is as follows:

<domain> <type> <item> <value>

The fields listed above should be filled as follows:

<domain>

        •   a username

        •   a groupname, with @group syntax. This should not be confused with netgroups.

        •   the wildcard *, for default entry.

        •   the wildcard %, for maxlogins limit only, can also be used with %group syntax.

<type>

        hard
            for enforcing hard resource limits. These limits are set by the superuser and enforced by the Kernel. The user cannot raise his requirement of system resources above such values.

        soft
            for enforcing soft resource limits. These limits are ones that the user can move up or down within the permitted range by any pre-exisiting hard limits. The values specified with this token can be thought of as default values, for normal system usage.

        -
            for enforcing both soft and hard resource limits together.

            Note, if you specify a type of '-' but neglect to supply the item and value fields then the module will never enforce any limits on the specified user/group etc. .

<item>

        core
            limits the core file size (KB)

        data
            maximum data size (KB)

        fsize
            maximum filesize (KB)

        memlock
            maximum locked-in-memory address space (KB)

        nofile
            maximum number of open files

        rss
            maximum resident set size (KB)

        stack
            maximum stack size (KB)

        cpu
            maximum CPU time (minutes)

        nproc
            maximum number of processes

        as
            address space limit (KB)

        maxlogins
            maximum number of logins for this user

        maxsyslogins
            maximum number of logins on system

        priority
            the priority to run user process with (negative values boost process priority)

        locks
            maximum locked files (Linux 2.4 and higher)

        sigpending
            maximum number of pending signals (Linux 2.6 and higher)

        msqqueue
            maximum memory used by POSIX message queues (bytes) (Linux 2.6 and higher)

        nice
            maximum nice priority allowed to raise to (Linux 2.6.12 and higher)

        rtprio
            maximum realtime priority allowed for non-privileged processes (Linux 2.6.12 and higher)

In general, individual limits have priority over group limits, so if you impose no limits for admin group, but one of the members in this group have a limits line, the user will have its limits set according to this line.

Also, please note that all limit settings are set per login. They are not global, nor are they permanent; existing only for the duration of the session.

In the limits configuration file, the '#' character introduces a comment - after which the rest of the line is ignored.

The pam_limits module does its best to report configuration problems found in its configuration file via syslog(3).

EXAMPLES

These are some example lines which might be specified in /etc/security/limits.conf.

    *               soft    core            0
    *               hard    rss             10000
    @student        hard    nproc           20
    @faculty        soft    nproc           20
    @faculty        hard    nproc           50
    ftp             hard    nproc           0
    @student        -       maxlogins       4

SEE ALSO

pam_limits(8), pam.d(5), pam(8)

AUTHOR

pam_limits was initially written by Cristian Gafton <gafton@redhat.com>