Re: File table overflow

Oskar Pearson (oskar@is.co.za)
Fri, 25 Sep 1998 21:34:35 +0200


Hi

> I get all kind of file table overflow error messages. It is kind of
> urgent. What can I do against it. Thank's

Sorry that this is late.

> Sep 22 11:33:57 math sendmail[29062]: LAA29061: SYSERR(UID0): Can't create
> transcript file xfLAA29061: File table overflow

This message occurs (at least in the cases where I have seen it) when the
overall-system limit on filehandles is reached.

there is a limit of 256 filehandles per process, and then there is an
overall limit.

The first is difficult to change.
The latter is easy:

[oskar@cache1 logs]$ cd /etc/rc.d/
[oskar@cache1 rc.d]$ grep kernel rc.local
/bin/echo "8192" > /proc/sys/kernel/file-max
/bin/echo "32768" > /proc/sys/kernel/inode-max

On system startup, rc.local is run, and the above change the system-wide
values.

To check the maximum FD's used so far system wide, you can read the
appropriate files:

newt:/root # cat /proc/sys/kernel/file-nr
180
newt:/root # cat /proc/sys/kernel/inode-nr
624 414

You can read the limits like this:
newt:/root # cat /proc/sys/kernel/file-max
1024
newt:/root # cat /proc/sys/kernel/inode-max
3072

Oskar

---
"Haven't slept at all. I don't see why people insist on sleeping. You feel
so much better if you don't. And how can anyone want to lose a minute -
a single minute of being alive?"				-- Think Twice

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