ulimit error while changing max files to unlimited: PAM / sshd options?

[Carl T. Miller]

Rahul Nabar wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 4:19 PM, Carl T. Miller <carl at carltm.com> wrote:
>> Yes, ulimit only lets you set a number up to the hard
>> limit that is set for your shell.  Both hard and soft
>> limits are set to 1024 by default unless the limits.conf
>> file has been configured _before_ the shell is started.
>
> I rebooted with the changed limits.conf. Doesn't that count as
> "before" the shell is started?

Yes, absolutely.  Of course a reboot isn't required if you're
changing user limits.

>> I know this works with numbers, since I set hard and
>> soft limits to 10240 for select users.  Try using a
>> number less than the total for the system instead of
>> unlimited.
>
> You are right! It does seem to work with arbitrarily large numbers
> lower than the kernel limit. But not unlimited. Strange! Is that a
> bug? I thought "unlimited" was supposed to be a convenient synonym for
> the kernel imposed limit.

I've never tried using unlimited.  What you say makes sense.

c