36.3. Details of Specific Resource Limits

In this section, we provide details on each of the resource limits available on Linux, noting those that are Linux-specific.

36.3.1.

36.3.1.1. RLIMIT_AS

The RLIMIT_AS limit specifies the maximum size for the process’s virtual memory (address space), in bytes. Attempts (brk(), sbrk(), mmap(), mremap(), and shmat()) to exceed this limit fail with the error ENOMEM. In practice, the most common place where a program may hit this limit is in calls to functions in the malloc package, which make use of sbrk() and mmap(). Upon encountering this limit, stack growth can also fail with the consequences listed below for RLIMIT_STACK.