What is soft limit and hard limit in Linux?
Category:
technology and computing
operating systems
There are two types of ulimit settings: The hard limit is the maximum value that is allowed for the soft limit. Any changes to the hard limit require root access. The soft limit is the value that Linux uses to limit the system resources for running processes. The soft limit cannot be greater than the hard limit.
Considering this, what is hard limit and soft limit?
A hard limit is the maximum allowed to a user, set by the superuser/root. This value is set in the file /etc/security/limits. conf. Think of it as an upper bound or ceiling or roof. A soft limit is the effective value right now for that user.
Then, how do you set a hard limit in Linux?
The system file limit is set in /proc/sys/fs/file-max . Use the ulimit command to set the file descriptor limit to the hard limit specified in /etc/security/limits. conf. Restart your system.
conf. 4194303 is the maximum limit for x86_64 and 32767 for x86. Short answer to your question : Number of process possible in the linux system is UNLIMITED. And you can check your user limits with below command (apposite to "max user processes").