limits.h
Section: POSIX Programmer's Manual (0P)
Updated: 2017
Page Index
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.
The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult
the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
limits.h
--- implementation-defined constants
SYNOPSIS
#include <limits.h>
DESCRIPTION
Some of the functionality described on this reference page extends the
ISO C standard. Applications shall define the appropriate feature test macro
(see the System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1-2017,
Section 2.2,
The Compilation Environment)
to enable the visibility of these symbols in this header.
Many of the symbols listed here are not defined by the ISO/IEC 9899:1999 standard. Such symbols
are not shown as CX shaded, except under the heading ``Numerical Limits''.
The
<limits.h>
header shall define macros and symbolic constants for various limits.
Different categories of limits are described below, representing various
limits on resources that the implementation imposes on applications.
All macros and symbolic constants defined in this header shall be
suitable for use in
#if
preprocessing directives.
Implementations may choose any appropriate value for each limit,
provided it is not more restrictive than the Minimum Acceptable Values
listed below. Symbolic constant names beginning with _POSIX may be
found in
<unistd.h>.
Applications should not assume any particular value for a limit. To
achieve maximum portability, an application should not require more
resource than the Minimum Acceptable Value quantity. However, an
application wishing to avail itself of the full amount of a resource
available on an implementation may make use of the value given in
<limits.h>
on that particular implementation, by using the macros and symbolic
constants listed below. It should be noted, however, that many of the
listed limits are not invariant, and at runtime, the value of the limit
may differ from those given in this header, for the following reasons:
- *
-
The limit is pathname-dependent.
- *
-
The limit differs between the compile and runtime machines.
For these reasons, an application may use the
fpathconf(),
pathconf(),
and
sysconf()
functions to determine the actual value of a limit at runtime.
The items in the list ending in _MIN give the most negative values that
the mathematical types are guaranteed to be capable of representing.
Numbers of a more negative value may be supported on some
implementations, as indicated by the
<limits.h>
header on the implementation, but applications requiring such numbers
are not guaranteed to be portable to all implementations. For positive
constants ending in _MIN, this indicates the minimum acceptable value.
Runtime Invariant Values (Possibly Indeterminate)
A definition of one of the symbolic constants in the following list
shall be omitted from
<limits.h>
on specific implementations where the corresponding value is equal to
or greater than the stated minimum, but is unspecified.
This indetermination might depend on the amount of available memory
space on a specific instance of a specific implementation. The actual
value supported by a specific instance shall be provided by the
sysconf()
function.
- {AIO_LISTIO_MAX}
-
Maximum number of I/O operations in a single list I/O call supported by
the implementation.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_AIO_LISTIO_MAX}
- {AIO_MAX}
-
Maximum number of outstanding asynchronous I/O operations supported by
the implementation.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_AIO_MAX}
- {AIO_PRIO_DELTA_MAX}
-
The maximum amount by which a process can decrease its asynchronous I/O
priority level from its own scheduling priority.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 0
- {ARG_MAX}
-
Maximum length of argument to the
exec
functions including environment data.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_ARG_MAX}
- {ATEXIT_MAX}
-
Maximum number of functions that may be registered with
atexit().
Minimum Acceptable Value: 32
- {CHILD_MAX}
-
Maximum number of simultaneous processes per real user ID.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_CHILD_MAX}
- {DELAYTIMER_MAX}
-
Maximum number of timer expiration overruns.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_DELAYTIMER_MAX}
- {HOST_NAME_MAX}
-
Maximum length of a host name (not including the terminating null)
as returned from the
gethostname()
function.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_HOST_NAME_MAX}
- {IOV_MAX}
-
Maximum number of
iovec
structures that one process has available for use with
readv()
or
writev().
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_XOPEN_IOV_MAX}
- {LOGIN_NAME_MAX}
-
Maximum length of a login name.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_LOGIN_NAME_MAX}
- {MQ_OPEN_MAX}
-
The maximum number of open message queue descriptors a process may
hold.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_MQ_OPEN_MAX}
- {MQ_PRIO_MAX}
-
The maximum number of message priorities supported by the implementation.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_MQ_PRIO_MAX}
- {OPEN_MAX}
-
A value one greater than the maximum value that the system may
assign to a newly-created file descriptor.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_OPEN_MAX}
- {PAGESIZE}
-
Size in bytes of a page.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 1
- {PAGE_SIZE}
-
Equivalent to
{PAGESIZE}.
If either
{PAGESIZE}
or
{PAGE_SIZE}
is defined, the other is defined with the same value.
- {PTHREAD_DESTRUCTOR_ITERATIONS}
-
Maximum number of attempts made to destroy a thread's thread-specific
data values on thread exit.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_THREAD_DESTRUCTOR_ITERATIONS}
- {PTHREAD_KEYS_MAX}
-
Maximum number of data keys that can be created by a process.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_THREAD_KEYS_MAX}
- {PTHREAD_STACK_MIN}
-
Minimum size in bytes of thread stack storage.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 0
- {PTHREAD_THREADS_MAX}
-
Maximum number of threads that can be created per process.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_THREAD_THREADS_MAX}
- {RTSIG_MAX}
-
Maximum number of realtime signals reserved for application use in this
implementation.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_RTSIG_MAX}
- {SEM_NSEMS_MAX}
-
Maximum number of semaphores that a process may have.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_SEM_NSEMS_MAX}
- {SEM_VALUE_MAX}
-
The maximum value a semaphore may have.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_SEM_VALUE_MAX}
- {SIGQUEUE_MAX}
-
Maximum number of queued signals that a process may send and have
pending at the receiver(s) at any time.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_SIGQUEUE_MAX}
- {SS_REPL_MAX}
-
The maximum number of replenishment operations that may be simultaneously
pending for a particular sporadic server scheduler.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_SS_REPL_MAX}
- {STREAM_MAX}
-
Maximum number of streams that one process can have open at one time.
If defined, it has the same value as
{FOPEN_MAX}
(see
<stdio.h>).
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_STREAM_MAX}
- {SYMLOOP_MAX}
-
Maximum number of symbolic links that can be reliably traversed in the
resolution of a pathname in the absence of a loop.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_SYMLOOP_MAX}
- {TIMER_MAX}
-
Maximum number of timers per process supported by the implementation.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_TIMER_MAX}
- {TRACE_EVENT_NAME_MAX}
-
Maximum length of the trace event name (not including the terminating null).
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_TRACE_EVENT_NAME_MAX}
- {TRACE_NAME_MAX}
-
Maximum length of the trace generation version string or of the
trace stream name (not including the terminating null).
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_TRACE_NAME_MAX}
- {TRACE_SYS_MAX}
-
Maximum number of trace streams that may simultaneously exist in
the system.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_TRACE_SYS_MAX}
- {TRACE_USER_EVENT_MAX}
-
Maximum number of user trace event type identifiers that may
simultaneously exist in a traced process, including the predefined
user trace event POSIX_TRACE_UNNAMED_USER_EVENT.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_TRACE_USER_EVENT_MAX}
- {TTY_NAME_MAX}
-
Maximum length of terminal device name.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_TTY_NAME_MAX}
- {TZNAME_MAX}
-
Maximum number of bytes supported for the name of a timezone (not of
the
TZ
variable).
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_TZNAME_MAX}
- Note:
-
The length given by
{TZNAME_MAX}
does not include the quoting characters mentioned in
Section 8.3, Other Environment Variables.
Pathname Variable Values
The values in the following list may be constants within an
implementation or may vary from one pathname to another. For example,
file systems or directories may have different characteristics.
A definition of one of the symbolic constants in the following list
shall be omitted from the
<limits.h>
header on specific implementations where the corresponding value is
equal to or greater than the stated minimum, but where the value can
vary depending on the file to which it is applied. The actual value
supported for a specific pathname shall be provided by the
pathconf()
function.
- {FILESIZEBITS}
-
Minimum number of bits needed to represent, as a signed integer value,
the maximum size of a regular file allowed in the specified directory.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 32
- {LINK_MAX}
-
Maximum number of links to a single file.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_LINK_MAX}
- {MAX_CANON}
-
Maximum number of bytes in a terminal canonical input line.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_MAX_CANON}
- {MAX_INPUT}
-
Minimum number of bytes for which space is available in a terminal
input queue; therefore, the maximum number of bytes a conforming
application may require to be typed as input before reading them.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_MAX_INPUT}
- {NAME_MAX}
-
Maximum number of bytes in a filename (not including the terminating
null of a filename string).
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_NAME_MAX}
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_XOPEN_NAME_MAX}
- {PATH_MAX}
-
Maximum number of bytes the implementation will store as a pathname in
a user-supplied buffer of unspecified size, including the terminating
null character. Minimum number the implementation will accept as the
maximum number of bytes in a pathname.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_PATH_MAX}
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_XOPEN_PATH_MAX}
- {PIPE_BUF}
-
Maximum number of bytes that is guaranteed to be atomic when writing to
a pipe.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_PIPE_BUF}
- {POSIX_ALLOC_SIZE_MIN}
-
Minimum number of bytes of storage actually allocated for any portion
of a file.
Minimum Acceptable Value: Not specified.
- {POSIX_REC_INCR_XFER_SIZE}
-
Recommended increment for file transfer sizes between the
{POSIX_REC_MIN_XFER_SIZE}
and
{POSIX_REC_MAX_XFER_SIZE}
values.
Minimum Acceptable Value: Not specified.
- {POSIX_REC_MAX_XFER_SIZE}
-
Maximum recommended file transfer size.
Minimum Acceptable Value: Not specified.
- {POSIX_REC_MIN_XFER_SIZE}
-
Minimum recommended file transfer size.
Minimum Acceptable Value: Not specified.
- {POSIX_REC_XFER_ALIGN}
-
Recommended file transfer buffer alignment.
Minimum Acceptable Value: Not specified.
- {SYMLINK_MAX}
-
Maximum number of bytes in a symbolic link.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_SYMLINK_MAX}
Runtime Increasable Values
The magnitude limitations in the following list shall be fixed by
specific implementations. An application should assume that the value
of the symbolic constant defined by
<limits.h>
in a specific implementation is the minimum that pertains whenever the
application is run under that implementation. A specific instance of a
specific implementation may increase the value relative to that
supplied by
<limits.h>
for that implementation. The actual value supported by a specific
instance shall be provided by the
sysconf()
function.
- {BC_BASE_MAX}
-
Maximum
obase
values allowed by the
bc
utility.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX2_BC_BASE_MAX}
- {BC_DIM_MAX}
-
Maximum number of elements permitted in an array by the
bc
utility.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX2_BC_DIM_MAX}
- {BC_SCALE_MAX}
-
Maximum
scale
value allowed by the
bc
utility.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX2_BC_SCALE_MAX}
- {BC_STRING_MAX}
-
Maximum length of a string constant accepted by the
bc
utility.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX2_BC_STRING_MAX}
- {CHARCLASS_NAME_MAX}
-
Maximum number of bytes in a character class name.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX2_CHARCLASS_NAME_MAX}
- {COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX}
-
Maximum number of weights that can be assigned to an entry of the
LC_COLLATE
order
keyword in the locale definition file; see
Chapter 7, Locale.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX2_COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX}
- {EXPR_NEST_MAX}
-
Maximum number of expressions that can be nested within parentheses by
the
expr
utility.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX2_EXPR_NEST_MAX}
- {LINE_MAX}
-
Unless otherwise noted, the maximum length, in bytes, of a utility's
input line (either standard input or another file), when the utility is
described as processing text files. The length includes room for the
trailing
<newline>.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX2_LINE_MAX}
- {NGROUPS_MAX}
-
Maximum number of simultaneous supplementary group IDs per process.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_NGROUPS_MAX}
- {RE_DUP_MAX}
-
Maximum number of repeated occurrences of a BRE or ERE interval
expression; see
Section 9.3.6, BREs Matching Multiple Characters
and
Section 9.4.6, EREs Matching Multiple Characters.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_RE_DUP_MAX}
Maximum Values
The
<limits.h>
header shall define the following symbolic constants with the values
shown. These are the most restrictive values for certain features on
an implementation. A conforming implementation shall provide values no
larger than these values. A conforming application must not require a
smaller value for correct operation.
- {_POSIX_CLOCKRES_MIN}
-
The resolution of the CLOCK_REALTIME clock, in nanoseconds.
Value: 20 000 000
-
If the Monotonic Clock option is supported, the resolution of the
CLOCK_MONOTONIC clock, in nanoseconds, is represented by
{_POSIX_CLOCKRES_MIN}.
Minimum Values
The
<limits.h>
header shall define the following symbolic constants with the values
shown. These are the most restrictive values for certain features on
an implementation conforming to this volume of POSIX.1-2017. Related symbolic constants are
defined elsewhere in this volume of POSIX.1-2017 which reflect the actual implementation and
which need not be as restrictive. For each of these limits, a conforming
implementation shall provide a value at least this large or shall have
no limit. A strictly conforming application must not require a larger
value for correct operation.
- {_POSIX_AIO_LISTIO_MAX}
-
The number of I/O operations that can be specified in a list I/O call.
Value: 2
- {_POSIX_AIO_MAX}
-
The number of outstanding asynchronous I/O operations.
Value: 1
- {_POSIX_ARG_MAX}
-
Maximum length of argument to the
exec
functions including environment data.
Value: 4 096
- {_POSIX_CHILD_MAX}
-
Maximum number of simultaneous processes per real user ID.
Value: 25
- {_POSIX_DELAYTIMER_MAX}
-
The number of timer expiration overruns.
Value: 32
- {_POSIX_HOST_NAME_MAX}
-
Maximum length of a host name (not including the terminating null)
as returned from the
gethostname()
function.
Value: 255
- {_POSIX_LINK_MAX}
-
Maximum number of links to a single file.
Value: 8
- {_POSIX_LOGIN_NAME_MAX}
-
The size of the storage required for a login name, in bytes
(including the terminating null).
Value: 9
- {_POSIX_MAX_CANON}
-
Maximum number of bytes in a terminal canonical input queue.
Value: 255
- {_POSIX_MAX_INPUT}
-
Maximum number of bytes allowed in a terminal input queue.
Value: 255
- {_POSIX_MQ_OPEN_MAX}
-
The number of message queues that can be open for a single process.
Value: 8
- {_POSIX_MQ_PRIO_MAX}
-
The maximum number of message priorities supported by the implementation.
Value: 32
- {_POSIX_NAME_MAX}
-
Maximum number of bytes in a filename (not including the terminating
null of a filename string).
Value: 14
- {_POSIX_NGROUPS_MAX}
-
Maximum number of simultaneous supplementary group IDs per process.
Value: 8
- {_POSIX_OPEN_MAX}
-
A value one greater than the maximum value that the system may assign
to a newly-created file descriptor.
Value: 20
- {_POSIX_PATH_MAX}
-
Minimum number the implementation will accept as the maximum number of
bytes in a pathname.
Value: 256
- {_POSIX_PIPE_BUF}
-
Maximum number of bytes that is guaranteed to be atomic when writing to
a pipe.
Value: 512
- {_POSIX_RE_DUP_MAX}
-
Maximum number of repeated occurrences of a BRE or ERE interval
expression; see
Section 9.3.6, BREs Matching Multiple Characters
and
Section 9.4.6, EREs Matching Multiple Characters.
Value: 255
- {_POSIX_RTSIG_MAX}
-
The number of realtime signal numbers reserved for application use.
Value: 8
- {_POSIX_SEM_NSEMS_MAX}
-
The number of semaphores that a process may have.
Value: 256
- {_POSIX_SEM_VALUE_MAX}
-
The maximum value a semaphore may have.
Value: 32 767
- {_POSIX_SIGQUEUE_MAX}
-
The number of queued signals that a process may send and have pending
at the receiver(s) at any time.
Value: 32
- {_POSIX_SSIZE_MAX}
-
The value that can be stored in an object of type
ssize_t.
Value: 32 767
- {_POSIX_SS_REPL_MAX}
-
The number of replenishment operations that may be simultaneously
pending for a particular sporadic server scheduler.
Value: 4
- {_POSIX_STREAM_MAX}
-
The number of streams that one process can have open at one time.
Value: 8
- {_POSIX_SYMLINK_MAX}
-
The number of bytes in a symbolic link.
Value: 255
- {_POSIX_SYMLOOP_MAX}
-
The number of symbolic links that can be traversed in the resolution of
a pathname in the absence of a loop.
Value: 8
- {_POSIX_THREAD_DESTRUCTOR_ITERATIONS}
-
The number of attempts made to destroy a thread's thread-specific data
values on thread exit.
Value: 4
- {_POSIX_THREAD_KEYS_MAX}
-
The number of data keys per process.
Value: 128
- {_POSIX_THREAD_THREADS_MAX}
-
The number of threads per process.
Value: 64
- {_POSIX_TIMER_MAX}
-
The per-process number of timers.
Value: 32
- {_POSIX_TRACE_EVENT_NAME_MAX}
-
The length in bytes of a trace event name (not including the terminating null).
Value: 30
- {_POSIX_TRACE_NAME_MAX}
-
The length in bytes of a trace generation version string or a trace
stream name (not including the terminating null).
Value: 8
- {_POSIX_TRACE_SYS_MAX}
-
The number of trace streams that may simultaneously exist in the system.
Value: 8
- {_POSIX_TRACE_USER_EVENT_MAX}
-
The number of user trace event type identifiers that may simultaneously
exist in a traced process, including the predefined user trace event
POSIX_TRACE_UNNAMED_USER_EVENT.
Value: 32
- {_POSIX_TTY_NAME_MAX}
-
The size of the storage required for a terminal device name, in bytes
(including the terminating null).
Value: 9
- {_POSIX_TZNAME_MAX}
-
Maximum number of bytes supported for the name of a timezone (not of
the
TZ
variable).
Value: 6
-
- Note:
-
The length given by
{_POSIX_TZNAME_MAX}
does not include the quoting characters mentioned in
Section 8.3, Other Environment Variables.
- {_POSIX2_BC_BASE_MAX}
-
Maximum
obase
values allowed by the
bc
utility.
Value: 99
- {_POSIX2_BC_DIM_MAX}
-
Maximum number of elements permitted in an array by the
bc
utility.
Value: 2 048
- {_POSIX2_BC_SCALE_MAX}
-
Maximum
scale
value allowed by the
bc
utility.
Value: 99
- {_POSIX2_BC_STRING_MAX}
-
Maximum length of a string constant accepted by the
bc
utility.
Value: 1 000
- {_POSIX2_CHARCLASS_NAME_MAX}
-
Maximum number of bytes in a character class name.
Value: 14
- {_POSIX2_COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX}
-
Maximum number of weights that can be assigned to an entry of the
LC_COLLATE
order
keyword in the locale definition file; see
Chapter 7, Locale.
Value: 2
- {_POSIX2_EXPR_NEST_MAX}
-
Maximum number of expressions that can be nested within parentheses by
the
expr
utility.
Value: 32
- {_POSIX2_LINE_MAX}
-
Unless otherwise noted, the maximum length, in bytes, of a utility's
input line (either standard input or another file), when the utility is
described as processing text files. The length includes room for the
trailing
<newline>.
Value: 2 048
- {_POSIX2_RE_DUP_MAX}
-
Maximum number of repeated occurrences of a BRE or ERE interval
expression; see
Section 9.3.6, BREs Matching Multiple Characters
and
Section 9.4.6, EREs Matching Multiple Characters.
Value: 255
- {_XOPEN_IOV_MAX}
-
Maximum number of
iovec
structures that one process has available for use with
readv()
or
writev().
Value: 16
- {_XOPEN_NAME_MAX}
-
Maximum number of bytes in a filename (not including the terminating
null of a filename string).
Value: 255
- {_XOPEN_PATH_MAX}
-
Minimum number the implementation will accept as the maximum number of
bytes in a pathname.
Value: 1024
Numerical Limits
The
<limits.h>
header shall define the following macros and, except for
{CHAR_BIT},
{LONG_BIT},
{MB_LEN_MAX},
and
{WORD_BIT},
they shall be replaced by expressions that have the same type as
would an expression that is an object of the corresponding type
converted according to the integer promotions.
If the value of an object of type
char
is treated as a signed integer when used in an expression, the value of
{CHAR_MIN}
is the same as that of
{SCHAR_MIN}
and the value of
{CHAR_MAX}
is the same as that of
{SCHAR_MAX}.
Otherwise, the value of
{CHAR_MIN}
is 0 and the value of
{CHAR_MAX}
is the same as that of
{UCHAR_MAX}.
- {CHAR_BIT}
-
Number of bits in a type
char.
Value: 8
- {CHAR_MAX}
-
Maximum value for an object of type
char.
Value:
{UCHAR_MAX}
or
{SCHAR_MAX}
- {CHAR_MIN}
-
Minimum value for an object of type
char.
Value:
{SCHAR_MIN}
or 0
- {INT_MAX}
-
Maximum value for an object of type
int.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 2 147 483 647
- {INT_MIN}
-
Minimum value for an object of type
int.
Maximum Acceptable Value: -2 147 483 647
- {LLONG_MAX}
-
Maximum value for an object of type
long long.
Minimum Acceptable Value: +9223372036854775807
- {LLONG_MIN}
-
Minimum value for an object of type
long long.
Maximum Acceptable Value: -9223372036854775807
- {LONG_BIT}
-
Number of bits in an object of type
long.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 32
- {LONG_MAX}
-
Maximum value for an object of type
long.
Minimum Acceptable Value: +2 147 483 647
- {LONG_MIN}
-
Minimum value for an object of type
long.
Maximum Acceptable Value: -2 147 483 647
- {MB_LEN_MAX}
-
Maximum number of bytes in a character, for any supported locale.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 1
- {SCHAR_MAX}
-
Maximum value for an object of type
signed char.
Value: +127
- {SCHAR_MIN}
-
Minimum value for an object of type
signed char.
Value: -128
- {SHRT_MAX}
-
Maximum value for an object of type
short.
Minimum Acceptable Value: +32 767
- {SHRT_MIN}
-
Minimum value for an object of type
short.
Maximum Acceptable Value: -32 767
- {SSIZE_MAX}
-
Maximum value for an object of type
ssize_t.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX_SSIZE_MAX}
- {UCHAR_MAX}
-
Maximum value for an object of type
unsigned char.
Value: 255
- {UINT_MAX}
-
Maximum value for an object of type
unsigned.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 4 294 967 295
- {ULLONG_MAX}
-
Maximum value for an object of type
unsigned long long.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 18446744073709551615
- {ULONG_MAX}
-
Maximum value for an object of type
unsigned long.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 4 294 967 295
- {USHRT_MAX}
-
Maximum value for an object of type
unsigned short.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 65 535
- {WORD_BIT}
-
Number of bits in an object of type
int.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 32
Other Invariant Values
The
<limits.h>
header shall define the following symbolic constants:
- {NL_ARGMAX}
-
Maximum value of
n
in conversion specifications using the "%n$"
sequence in calls to the
printf()
and
scanf()
families of functions.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 9
- {NL_LANGMAX}
-
Maximum number of bytes in a
LANG
name.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 14
- {NL_MSGMAX}
-
Maximum message number.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 32 767
- {NL_SETMAX}
-
Maximum set number.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 255
- {NL_TEXTMAX}
-
Maximum number of bytes in a message string.
Minimum Acceptable Value:
{_POSIX2_LINE_MAX}
- {NZERO}
-
Default process priority.
Minimum Acceptable Value: 20
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
RATIONALE
A request was made to reduce the value of
{_POSIX_LINK_MAX}
from the value of 8 specified for it in the POSIX.1-1990 standard to 2. The
standard developers decided to deny this request for several reasons:
- *
-
They wanted to avoid making any changes to the standard that could
break conforming applications, and the requested change could have that
effect.
- *
-
The use of multiple hard links to a file cannot always be replaced with
use of symbolic links. Symbolic links are semantically different from
hard links in that they associate a pathname with another pathname
rather than a pathname with a file. This has implications for access
control, file permanence, and transparency.
- *
-
The original standard developers had considered the issue of allowing
for implementations that did not in general support hard links, and
decided that this would reduce consensus on the standard.
Systems that support historical versions of the development option of
the ISO POSIX-2 standard retain the name
{_POSIX2_RE_DUP_MAX}
as an alias for
{_POSIX_RE_DUP_MAX}.
- {PATH_MAX}
-
IEEE PASC Interpretation 1003.1 #15 addressed the inconsistency in the
standard with the definition of pathname and the description of
{PATH_MAX},
allowing application developers to allocate either
{PATH_MAX}
or
{PATH_MAX}+1
bytes. The inconsistency has been removed by correction to the
{PATH_MAX}
definition to include the null character. With this change,
applications that previously allocated
{PATH_MAX}
bytes will continue to succeed.
- {SYMLINK_MAX}
-
This symbol refers to space for data that is stored in the file system,
as opposed to
{PATH_MAX}
which is the length of a name that can be passed to a function. In some
existing implementations, the pathnames pointed to by symbolic links
are stored in the
inodes
of the links, so it is important that
{SYMLINK_MAX}
not be constrained to be as large as
{PATH_MAX}.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
Chapter 7,
Locale,
<stdio.h>,
<unistd.h>
The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1-2017,
Section 2.2, The Compilation Environment,
fpathconf(),
sysconf()
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition,
Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear
in this page are most likely
to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to
man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .