Why does 'ulimit -a' show some parameters as "not supported"? (Doc ID 2459539.1)

Last updated on JULY 07, 2023

Applies to:

Symptoms

Depending on the Solaris versions and the shell you are using, the 'ulimit -a' command (see 'man ulimit') may show the following output where some parameters are marked as "not supported":

$ ulimit -a
address space limit (Kibytes)  (-M)  unlimited
core file size (blocks)        (-c)  unlimited
cpu time (seconds)             (-t)  unlimited
data size (Kibytes)            (-d)  unlimited
file size (blocks)             (-f)  unlimited
locks                          (-x)  not supported
locked address space (Kibytes) (-l)  not supported
message queue size (Kibytes)   (-q)  not supported
nice                           (-e)  not supported
nofile                         (-n)  256
nproc                          (-u)  64517
pipe buffer size (bytes)       (-p)  5120
max memory size (Kibytes)      (-m)  not supported
rtprio                         (-r)  not supported
socket buffer size (bytes)     (-b)  5120
sigpend                        (-i)  128
stack size (Kibytes)           (-s)  8192
swap size (Kibytes)            (-w)  not supported
threads                        (-T)  not supported
process size (Kibytes)         (-v)  unlimited

Note:  As of this writing, these output are seen on ksh, sh, and csh, but not on bash.  Depending on what shell you are using, your output may vary.

Cause

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