Is applying ulimit to pipes a bug?

[Kent Forschmiedt]

[ In article <242 at twg-ap.UUCP> dwh at twg-ap.UUCP (Dave Hamaker)
  notes that his ulimit is applied to pipes as well as regular
  files, and that he feels that it is very stupid. ]

I think that ulimit, at least as implemented, and especially as
configured in most distributions, is extremely stupid.  Fortunately
for me, Motorola made it a tunable parameter, so I can make it VERY
large and seldom worry about it.  For others, it is not so easy.
I have told a few people how to use a fake init:

/* init.fake.c    make a bootable floppy before you try this */
main(argc,argv) char **argv;
{ ulimit(2,BIGNUM); execv("/etc/init.real", argv); }


I have never heard anyone say anything nice about ulimit, though -
only, "How do I get around it?"  To me, that is a sure indication
of a misfeature.
-- 
--
	Kent Forschmiedt -- kent at happym.UUCP, tikal!camco!happym!kent
	Happy Man Corporation  206-282-9598