[Techtalk] Kernel per process memory limits?

[Maria Blackmore]

On Mon, 1 Sep 2003, David Merrill wrote:

> Does anyone know what the current per-process memory limit is in 2.4
> and in 2.6?

Hello,

I believe that it is currently possible to malloc() up to 3 GB per process
under linux, irrespective of version.  You should note though, that some
older versions of libc/glibc may be implementing malloc() using brk(), in
which case they can only get 900 MB per process.

Also, just because you can malloc() 3 GB, it doesn't mean you should :)

You can use ulimit to enforce lower limits than them, and have these
forced upon login, if you want.

Maria