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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!news.sprintlink.net!sundog.tiac.net!kolvir.arlington.ma.us!jtk From: jtk@kolvir.arlington.ma.us (John Kohl) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc Subject: Re: Number of max available file descriptors? Date: 20 Sep 1995 03:41:29 GMT Organization: NetBSD Kernel Hackers `R` Us Lines: 28 Message-ID: <43o2h9$6ob@sundog.tiac.net> References: <43kj47$2q8@nntp.Stanford.EDU> <MICHAELV.95Sep18163106@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: jtk.tiac.net In-reply-to: michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com's message of 18 Sep 1995 23:31:06 GMT >>>>> "Michael" == Michael L VanLoon <michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> writes: In article <MICHAELV.95Sep18163106@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com (Michael L. VanLoon) writes: Michael> In article <43kj47$2q8@nntp.Stanford.EDU> fangchin@jessica.Stanford.EDU (Chin Fang) writes: Michael> One of our heavily used SS2 running SunOS 4.1.3U1B kept running out Michael> file descriptors when certain jobs were running. We fixed it for the Michael> time being by hacking the code and adding in a setrlimit() to get Michael> the max from SunOS everytime these jobs are run. Michael> That is one correct way to fix it. Just be careful if you raise it above 256 and want to use programs which call select. By default, the fd_set type only has enough bits for 256 file descriptors. If you pass a higher file descriptor into precompiled code that wants to diddle fd_set bits, you may end up with trashed memory near your fd_sets. This problem is endemic to all modern unices I've run across--anything in library code which uses fd_set just doesn't work well if you use lots and lots of file descriptors and ask the library code to manipulate them for you. See <sys/types.h>. -- John Kohl <jtk@tiac.net> or <jtk@kolvir.arlington.ma.us>