Sad Expat <expat@expatsrus.org> wrote:
> In my current project, some of the code I've been writing has been
> consuming huge amounts of memory before coredumping, and after a few of
> these, the filesystem is full and I have problems clearing it.

> then found the coredump controls, and then intellectual curiosity took
> over me and I started wondering how would it be possible to lock a
> system down so a user could be really controlled.

As you really want to avoid a filled up file system it would probably be
better to use disk usage quotas to control users for this purpose. With
quotas you can be sure that the disks are not filled and users are still
able to get complete small core dumps useful for debugging.

However, ulimit might still be useful for you to kill runaway processes
that consume to much memory.

regards Henrik
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* Sad Expat <expat@expatsrus.org> writes:

> On 2005-10-25, Steve Youngs <steve@youngs.au.com> wrote:
>> > /etc/profile gets 'ulimit -Hc 0'
>> > That gives me exactly what I want
>>
>> I _have_ to know, it's driving me nuts... why do you want this?

> I am a paranoid and suspicious administrator who wants to control
> my users completely. On the other hand I am my only user.

:-)

> In my current project, some of the code I've been writing has been
> consuming huge amounts of memory before coredumping, and after a few of
> these, the filesystem is full and I have problems clearing it.

As somebody else mentioned, you might benefit from setting disk
quotas. I've never played with those, so can't help there, sorry.

> But now I've learnt something new and I understand the system just a
> little bit better, and I marvel at how vast and complicated a modern
> Unix system is and how much fun it is to work with.

Learning is indeed a wonderful thing. :-)

> Thanks for your help on this.

You're welcome.

--
|---<Steve Youngs>---------------<GnuPG KeyID: A94B3003>---|
| Genius - Is the ability to reduce |
| the complicated to the simple |
|----------------------------------<steve@youngs.au.com>---|

* Felix Rawlings <fraw@yahoo.com> writes:

> On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 01:10:01 +0000, Steve Youngs wrote:
>> * Felix Rawlings <fraw@yahoo.com> writes:
>> > If you don't know the answer to the OP's question,

>> Don't jump to conclusions...

>> `ulimit -Hc 0'

> So, either you knew before, and selfishly kept the info to
> yourself, choosing to demand first why, or you did not, and, out
> of shame, found out only when spurred to do so.

There are other options. One of which might involve you having a
sufficiently meaningless life that devoting time to casting aspersions
is important to you.

Whatever makes you happy.

--
|---<Steve Youngs>---------------<GnuPG KeyID: A94B3003>---|
| Genius - Is the ability to reduce |
| the complicated to the simple |
|----------------------------------<steve@youngs.au.com>---|