[solved] Limit memory for a process

creiss · Last edited by creiss on Sun Oct 14, 2007 6:13 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hey all!

How would I be able to limit the total amount of memory one process might use? I am not talking about a general max size, but more of a "this process". I have one issue with a programm that like to memory leak and bugs my system down until i can only hit the reset switch.

Any help would be very welcome,

-Chris.
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Dottout · l33t Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 882

ulimit should do the trick

creiss · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 5:09 pm Post subject:

That was fast.

Could you maybe also supply me with a possible use? The manpage is not that obvious on that.

Thanks!
-Chris.
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Dottout · l33t Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 882

sorry but I've never used it :p

Hu · Administrator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 23089

The ulimit manpage is probably not the documentation you want to read for this. Bash has a built-in command called ulimit which can do what you want, and is probably what Dottout was referencing. See info bash and search for ulimit in the info pages. Run ulimit -a to see all current limits.

If you are not using bash, the command to control resource limits may be named differently. In that case, tell us what shell you are using and we can help you find the command for that shell. The support is provided by the kernel, so you can apply resource limits regardless of which shell you use.

creiss · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 7:29 pm Post subject:

Hey,
Thanks for your kind reply.

I am using bash allright.

-Chris.
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Emopig · Apprentice Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Posts: 188

Pay special attention to what happens when the memory limit is reached. Most programs aren't coded to respond well to out of memory errors when they try and allocate.
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creiss · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:16 am Post subject:

Anything is better than stalling the system. Let it dump, fault... anything!

-Chris.
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