ulimit -p incorrect on linux (and besides being low, probably unenforceable(?))

[Linda Walsh]

When under linux (2.6.30.x), I type
ulimit -p and get a return value of "8".

from the man page this is in 512-byte blocks and may not be set.

But if I look into the linux man page:
man 7 pipe, under "pipe capacity", I see:

 In Linux versions before 2.6.11, the capacity of a pipe was the same as
 the  system  page size (e.g., 4096 bytes on i386).  Since Linux 2.6.11,
 the pipe capacity is 65536 bytes.


Of course given standard PC memories for modern systems being measured
in Gigabytes, a 64K limit seems ludicrous, but I realize this is
an internal (and fixed) internal kernel value on linux.

Is there a way to actually read the size of a pipe buffer under linux?

A brief look over my linux man pages shows no system call that would allow
one to determine the system pipe buffer size, let alone any way to set it.

Linda