# Setting of parent shell params?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/setting-of-parent-shell-params/122972>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [December 13, 2007, 4:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/setting-of-parent-shell-params/122972 "2007-12-13T04:21:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c0e974/32.png) [@princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/princenamor)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 4:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/setting-of-parent-shell-params/122972/1 "2007-12-13T04:21:32Z")

</div>

Guys,

I have a problem with one of my rake tasks. It loads a very large yaml  
file into the db, but because of the default limitation on stack size  
in the Linux shell, the task craps out. Executing “ulimit -s 16384”  
fixes the issue, and the task completes just fine.

What I’d like to do within my task is this (in ruby-ish pseudo):

if on\_linux?  
set\_stack\_of\_running\_shell\_via\_ulimit 16384  
end

Is there any way to do this? Can I modify the attributes of the shell  
that is running me?

Thanks!  
John