JModelLegacy $model->setState('list.limit', 6); not limit list

Question

Am using JModelLegacy to get records , everthing works fine . however when setting limit with $model->setState('list.limit', 6); its not limiting the records below is my code :

      $model = JModelLegacy::getInstance('Articles', 'ContentModel', array('ignore_request' => false));
      $appParams = JFactory::getApplication()->getParams();
      $model->setState('params', $appParams);
      $model->setState('filter.category_id',$cat_id ); //change that to your Category ID
       $model->setState('list.limit', 6);
      $model->setState('list.ordering', 'hits');
      $model->setState('list.direction', 'ASC');
      $items = $model->getItems();

Answer 1

I suspect in the context this is being used, you might want to put ignore_request to true?

I believe ContentModelArticles::getItems calls ContentModelArticles::populateState (through ContentModelArticles::getListQuery which in turn call ContentModelArticles::getState) which in turn run the code

$value = $app->input->get('limit', $app->get('list_limit', 0), 'uint');
$this->setState('list.limit', $value);

which sets the limit based on $app->get('list_limit', 0) since 'limit' is likely not passed via request.