maxuprc

maxuprc specifies the maximum number of simultaneous user processes that any given user can be running.

Acceptable Values:

Minimum
3
Maximum
Nproc-5
Default
50

Specify integer value. For more information, see Specifying Parameter Values.

Description

maxuprc establishes the maximum number of simultaneous processes available to each user on the system. A user is identified by the user ID number, not by the number of login instances. Each user requires at least one process for the login shell, and additional processes for all other processes spawned in that process group. (the default is usually adequate).

The super-user is exempt from this limit.

Pipelines need at least one simultaneous process for each side of a |. Some commands, such as cc, fc, and pc, use more than one process per invocation.

If a user attempts to start a new process that would cause the total number of processes for that user to exceed maxuprc, the system issues an error message to the user:


no more processes

If a user process executes a fork() system call to create a new process, causing the total number of processes for the user to exceed maxuprc, fork() returns minus 1 and sets errno to EAGAIN.

Related Parameters

maxuprc must always be less than nproc (maximum number of processes in the system). Otherwise, maxuprc is no longer a limit, allowing a single user to monopolize system resources.

Additional Information