Re: How to increat [sic.] max open files?

Andrew E. Mileski (aem@nic.ott.hookup.net)
Thu, 2 Jan 1997 17:02:48 -0500 (EST)

> I think that a task, process, program, etc., that needs more than 100
> file handles is improperly written. Keeping that many files open at any
> one time will cause file destruction if the system crashes. On the other
> hand, opening/reading/writing/closing files in rapid sucession is not
> very efficient. A file-handle limit forces a programmer to think about
> this and design (rather than just write), the program.

I agree - but the problem isn't usually files, it is TCP sockets which use
file descriptors. The software should multiplex the sockets, but I rarely
see software that does this. UDP is an even better solution IMHO, as a
single UDP socket can serve any number of clients.

There are two WELL KNOWN problems with increasing the limits too: the
kernel stack is too small, and a large amount of non-kernel code needs
to be compiled with the new limits. In order to achieve this, there
_MUST_ be agreement between _ALL_ distribution packagers, not just
developers and Linus.

--
Andrew E. Mileski   mailto:aem@ott.hookup.net
Linux Plug-and-Play Kernel Project http://www.redhat.com/linux-info/pnp/
XFree86 Matrox Team http://www.bf.rmit.edu.au/~ajv/xf86-matrox.html