>>> I know it works because I just tested it and it survived the >>> server's >>> reboot. I ran "ulimit -a" and the new value was there. >>> >> ...from a login shell. If you don't have a login shell /etc/profile >> isn't read on bash startup. >> > > In my case, I am doing the change because of Samba. When you run > tesparm, the lastest versions of Samba give the following warning: > > rlimit_max: rlimit_max (1024) below minimum Windows limit (16384) > > When I add the line "ulimit -n 1024" to /etc/profile, the warning > disappears, even after a reboot. > So, this certainly works for processes running as root. > > But you are right in that it will probably depend on the particular > user > requirement. I also had to increase the default ulimit to 8192 on my ldap servers otherwise people couldn't login.