LKBEN11203: To many open files on a debian like system
Symptom
The OS tells you that there are to many open files
Cause
This is by design and can be changed
Solution
On a Linux system you can limit the number of open files for any user. The default values on a debian or Ubuntu/Kubuntu system are located in /etc/security/limits.conf. In this file you can set options on a user basis.
To configure a certain user for opening more than the default you can add a line like this:
yourusername - nofile 8192
This will give the user yourusername an open file limit of 8192. To see the configuration you can use ulimit -a. This command will show you the limits for the logged on user. To make the changes work you need to logoff and logon again.
This is an example of the ulimit -a output:
core file size (blocks, -c) 0
data seg size (kbytes, -d) unlimited
scheduling priority (-e) 20
file size (blocks, -f) unlimited
pending signals (-i) 16382
max locked memory (kbytes, -l) 64
max memory size (kbytes, -m) unlimited
open files (-n) 1024
pipe size (512 bytes, -p) 8
POSIX message queues (bytes, -q) 819200
real-time priority (-r) 0
stack size (kbytes, -s) 8192
cpu time (seconds, -t) unlimited
max user processes (-u) unlimited
virtual memory (kbytes, -v) unlimited
file locks (-x) unlimited
This user still has the 1024 open files limit.
Disclaimer:
The information provided in this document is intended for your information only. Lubby makes no claims to the validity of this information. Use of this information is at own risk!About the Author
Author: - Keskon GmbH & Co. KG
Wim Peeters is electronics engineer with an additional master in IT and over 30 years of experience, including time spent in support, development, consulting, training and database administration. Wim has worked with SQL Server since version 6.5. He has developed in C/C++, Java and C# on Windows and Linux. He writes knowledge base articles to solve IT problems and publishes them on the Lubby Knowledge Platform.