Is applying ulimit to pipes a bug?

[Chris Torek]

>In article <244 at twg-ap.UUCP> dwh at twg-ap.UUCP (Dave Hamaker) writes:
>>> If I don't raise the ulimit, the pipes fail.
>>Oh embarrassment!  I had come to this conclusion because of past experiences
>>and when I try it now, it doesn't fail.

In article <7928 at brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn at brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>Don't be so quick to retract this.

Indeed not.

As it happens, in older Unixes, the `apparent' size of a pipe was reset
only when the reader caught up with the writer (or something along
those lines---I never looked at that code, and now my pipes are
sockets, but a friend says this).  It may be that if the reader is
perenially 1 block behind the writer, that the pipe eventually reaches
the ulimit.  I would have to look at the code to be sure, but it
should not be too hard to test.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris