/etc/security/limits.conf: ulimit -l (max locked memory) reports 32 when it should be unlimited

[Yasir Assam <list1@endlessvoid.com>]

Hello,

I'm using Sarge.

I'm learning to use /etc/security/limits.conf in order to set user 
limits via PAM. According to the doc if I specify a user or group 
followed by '-' and omit the type and value, then no limits will apply 
to that user/group, e.g.

@root  -

will ensure that no limits will apply to use users belonging to the 
group 'root'. However, when I run uname -a I get 32 kb instead of 
"unlimited" for the max locked memory:

$ ulimit -a
core file size        (blocks, -c) 0
data seg size         (kbytes, -d) unlimited
file size             (blocks, -f) unlimited
max locked memory     (kbytes, -l) 32
max memory size       (kbytes, -m) unlimited
open files                    (-n) 1024
pipe size          (512 bytes, -p) 8
stack size            (kbytes, -s) unlimited
cpu time             (seconds, -t) unlimited
max user processes            (-u) 2112
virtual memory        (kbytes, -v) unlimited

If I leave /etc/security/limits.conf empty, then I get the following 
results:

$ ulimit -a
core file size        (blocks, -c) 0
data seg size         (kbytes, -d) unlimited
file size             (blocks, -f) unlimited
max locked memory     (kbytes, -l) unlimited
max memory size       (kbytes, -m) unlimited
open files                    (-n) 1024
pipe size          (512 bytes, -p) 8
stack size            (kbytes, -s) unlimited
cpu time             (seconds, -t) unlimited
max user processes            (-u) unlimited
virtual memory        (kbytes, -v) unlimited

Can anyone explain the reason why "max locked memory" is reduced from 
"unlimited" to "32"? I presume that the "max locked memory" is the 
maximum amount of memory that must stay in physical RAM, and that 
anything over that can be swapped to disk. Is that right?

Thanks,
Yasir