Solaris 10 What's New

System V IPC Configuration

This feature is new in the Software Express pilot program. This feature is included in the Solaris 10 3/05 release.

In the Solaris software, all System V IPC facilities are either automatically configured, or the facilities can be controlled by resource controls. These facilities might be shared memory, message queues, or semaphores. Resource controls allow IPC settings to be made on a per-project or per-user basis on the local system or in a name service environment. In previous Solaris releases, IPC facilities were controlled by kernel tunables. You had to modify the /etc/system file and reboot the system to change the default values for these facilities. Because the IPC facilities are now controlled by resource controls, their configuration can be modified while the system is running. Many applications that previously required system tuning to function might now run without tuning because of increased defaults and automatic allocation of resources.

The following table identifies the now obsolete IPC tunables that are described in the Solaris Tunable Parameters Reference Manual and their replacement resource controls.

Resource Control	Obsolete Tunable	Old Default Value	Maximum Value	New Default Value
`process.max-msg-qbytes`	`msginfo_msgmnb`	4096	`ULONG_MAX`	65536
`process.max-msg-messages`	`msginfo_msgtql`	40	`UINT_MAX`	8192
`process.max-sem-ops`	`seminfo_semopm`	10	`INT_MAX`	512
`process.max-sem-nsems`	`seminfo_semmsl`	25	`SHRT_MAX`	512
`project.max-shm-memory`	`shminfo_shmmax`	0x800000	`UINT64_MAX`	1/4 of physical memory
`project.max-shm-ids`	`shminfo_shmmni`	100	`2`²⁴	128
`project.max-msg-ids`	`msginfo_msgmni`	50	2²⁴	128
`project.max-sem-ids`	`seminfo_semmni`	10	2²⁴	128

Obsolete parameters might be included in the /etc/system file on this Solaris system. If so, the parameters are used to initialize the default resource control values as in previous Solaris releases. However, using the obsolete parameters is not recommended.

The following related parameters have been removed. If these parameters are included in the /etc/system file on this Solaris system, the parameters are commented out.

semsys:seminfo_semmns
semsys:seminfo_semvmx
semsys:seminfo_semmnu
semsys:seminfo_semaem
semsys:seminfo_semume
semsys:seminfo_semusz
semsys:seminfo_semmap
shmsys:shminfo_shmseg
shmsys:shminfo_shmmin
msgsys:msginfo_msgmap
msgsys:msginfo_msgseg
msgsys:msginfo_msgssz
msgsys:msginfo_msgmax

For more information about using the new resource controls, see System V IPC and Other Resource Controls.