Maximum number of processes in linux

linux process operating-system
kdexter picture kdexter · Feb 20, 2012 · Viewed 191k times · Source

What is the maximum limit to the number of processes possible in a linux system? How can we find it ?

Answer

user257111 picture user257111 · Feb 20, 2012

Your kernel should export this information in procfs:

cat /proc/sys/kernel/pid_max

This is the maximum number of unique process identifiers your system can support.

Since it is a file, /proc/sys/kernel/pid_max can be inspected from any capable programming language.

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