On Thu, 4 Oct 2007, Brian Buhrow wrote:

> 	Hello Jeremy.  Yes, I have  proc.curproc.rlimit.datasize.soft
> in my /etc/sysctl.conf file.
> What tipped me off to this problem was that I set the variable in the
> config file, and rebooted.  Yet, the value didn't change.  My understanding
> is that if I update the sysctl variable, it won't affect my current shell, but
> new shells should pick it up, right?  At the very least,  sysctl -a should
> show the change.

No.

It is for the "current process" which exits immediately. It doesn't change 
your parent process. So next time your run "sysctl -a" that is a new 
process which is unrelated.

Instead of proc.curproc.rlimit.datasize.soft, if you want to change the 
shell use:

proc.$$.rlimit.datasize.soft

(where the $$ is the shell's current process ID.)

Or use the shell's builtin "ulimit -d". Note that shell is in kilobytes 
and the sysctl is in bytes for the "data size".



> 	I have other variables set in the sysctl.conf file, which are set, so
> I know the startup scripts are runing properly.
> -thanks
> -Brian