pam_limits 8 Linux-PAM Manual pam_limits PAM module to limit resources pam_limits.so change_uid conf=/path/to/limits.conf debug utmp_early The pam_limits PAM module sets limits on the system resources that can be obtained in a user-session. Users of uid=0 are affected by this limits, too. By default limits are taken from the /etc/security/limits.conf config file. change_uid Change real uid to the user for who the limits are set up. Use this option if you have problems like login not forking a shell for user who has no processes. Be warned that something else may break when you do this. conf=/path/to/limits.conf Indicate an alternative limits.conf style configuration file to override the default. debug Print debug information. utmp_early Some broken applications actually allocate a utmp entry for the user before the user is admitted to the system. If some of the services you are configuring PAM for do this, you can selectively use this module argument to compensate for this behavior and at the same time maintain system-wide consistency with a single limits.conf file. Only the session service is supported. PAM_ABORT Cannot get current limits. PAM_IGNORE No limits found for this user. PAM_PERM_DENIED New limits could not be set. PAM_SERVICE_ERR Cannot read config file. PAM_SESSEION_ERR Error recovering account name. PAM_SUCCESS Limits were changed. PAM_USER_UNKNOWN The user is not known to the system. /etc/security/limits.conf Default configuration file For the services you need resources limits (login for example) put a the following line in /etc/pam.d/login as the last line for that service (usually after the pam_unix session line): #%PAM-1.0 # # Resource limits imposed on login sessions via pam_limits # session required pam_limits.so Replace "login" for each service you are using this module. limits.conf5 , pam.d8 , pam8 . pam_limits was initially written by Cristian Gafton <gafton@redhat.com>