---
name: "lshell"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "lshell"
version: "2.01-11"
release: "Debian 3.0 (Woody)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/lshell/8"
---

# lshell(8)

Securely establish process limits upon login

## NAME

lshell - Securely establish process limits upon login

## SYNOPSIS

Make a copy a user's login shell.

## DESCRIPTION

**LShell** allows a system administrator to easily set and maintain per-user limits on CPU time, number of processes, virtual memory usage, and open files. A master file (/etc/lshell.conf) contains a default entry and overriding entries for specific users.

## /etc/lshell.conf

This file contains the entries for the resource limits. Each line consists of a username optionally followed by resource limits. If resource limits are present, they may be followed by a comment.

The last line is the default entry and can contain any name that does not represent a user on the system. **Default** is typically used.

If there is no second field, no limits are imposed on that user. Otherwise, the second field consists of a letter identifying the resource to be limited and a number specifying the limit. Multiple limits are simply concatenated together. If multiple entries appear for the same user, the first is used.

Valid resource limiters are **F** followed by the number of file descriptors, **P** followed by the number of processes, **C** followed by the maximum CPU time in minutes, and **D** followed by the in-memory data limit in Megabytes.

Reasonable limits for typical users are C60D20F96P28

## VERSION

**lshell** version 2.01, March 11, 1995.

## WARNINGS

The user name in **/etc/lshell.conf** must exactly match (case included) the entry in **/etc/passwd.**

## BUGS

None. Just undocumented features. If you discover any bugs, please mail them to the author (Joel Katz) at Stimpson@Panix.COM.

Some versions of bash fail to correctly report the limit on the number of file descriptors, however **lshell** does set this limit properly.