/etc/security/limits.conf

[Adam Garsha]

Are the limits that are specified here per-process? Namely, say I set a nofile limit, does that mean that each user "foo" can have nofile or that the sum of open files on the system opened by foo is limited to nofile?

Said another way, are these per-process limits or global somehow to a uid (assuming you specify a user).

[Adam Garsha]

To be even more specific. say nofile hard limit is set to 20 for user foo.

And two instances of user foo are logged in. Can they each open 20 files?

[Adam Garsha]

testing seems to show it is per login session, not per user. So yes, they could each open 20 I think.

[dirk dierickx]

i think the man page is pretty clear;

"Also, please note that all limit settings are set per login. They are not global, nor are they permanent; existing only for the duration of the session."