max_nprocs

Description

Specifies the maximum number of processes that can be created on a system. Includes system processes and user processes. Any value specified in /etc/system is used in the computation of maxuprc.

This value is also used in determining the size of several other system data structures. Other data structures where this parameter plays a role are as follows:

• Determining the size of the directory name lookup cache (if ncsize is not specified)

• Allocating disk quota structures for UFS (if ndquot is not specified)

• Verifying that the amount of memory used by configured system V semaphores does not exceed system limits

• Configuring Hardware Address Translation resources for x86 platforms.

Data Type

Signed integer

Default

10 + (16 x maxusers)

Range

266 to value of maxpid

Dynamic?

No

Validation

Yes. The value is compared to maxpid and set to maxpid if it is larger. On x86 platforms, an additional check is made against a platform-specific value. max_nprocs is set to the smallest value in the triplet (max_nprocs, maxpid, platform value). Both SPARC and x86 platforms use 65,534 as the platform value.

When to Change

Changing this parameter is one of the steps necessary to enable support for more than 30,000 processes on a system.

Commitment Level

Unstable

Change History

For information, see max_nprocs (Solaris 9 Releases).