Which of the following resources of a shell and its child processes can be controlled by the Bash build- in command ulimit? (Choose THREE correct answers.)

Question

Options

• AThe maximum size of written files
• BThe maximum number of open file descriptors
• CThe maximum number of newly created files
• DThe maximum number of environment variables
• EThe maximum number of user processes

• A
  94% (47)
• C
  2% (1)
• D
  4% (2)

Explanation

ulimit maps directly to kernel resource limits (setrlimit system call), and options A, B, and E each correspond to real, configurable limits: -f caps the maximum size of files a process can write, -n limits the number of open file descriptors, and -u restricts the maximum number of processes a user can run simultaneously. Option C is wrong because ulimit has no concept of "number of files created" - it can limit how large a written file gets, but not how many files are created. Option D is wrong because environment variables are a user-space shell feature, not a kernel resource limit, so ulimit has no mechanism to control them. A helpful memory tip: think of ulimit as controlling kernel-tracked resources (file size, file descriptors, processes, memory, CPU time) - if it's not tracked by the OS kernel per-process, ulimit can't limit it.

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