# 24: Too many open files

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/24-too-many-open-files/205243>\
**Category:** NGINX\
**Created:** [April 1, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/24-too-many-open-files/205243 "2011-04-01T17:58:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dubstep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@dubstep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dubstep)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/24-too-many-open-files/205243/1 "2011-04-01T17:58:41Z")

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Hi. Hope someone can answer which open file limit is being reached  
(doesn’t seem right to me)

tail error.log  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)

lsof -n | wc -l  
4321

cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max  
1645538

ulimit -n  
1000000

Why it the limit being reached?

Many thanks  
Richard

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**Author:** ![rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rkoskela)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/24-too-many-open-files/205243/2 "2011-04-01T18:06:42Z")

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Hi,

> Why it the limit being reached?

Check “worker\_rlimit\_nofile” directive.

Best regards,  
Piotr S. \< [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) \>

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**Author:** ![rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rkoskela)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/24-too-many-open-files/205243/3 "2011-04-01T18:07:56Z")

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## write the ulimit number into profile file. then source it.

blog: [http://chenxiaoyu.org](http://chenxiaoyu.org)

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 11:58 PM, Richard K.  
\<[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rkoskela)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/24-too-many-open-files/205243/4 "2011-04-01T18:18:25Z")

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Do you have a example?  
What will this do?

From: smallfish [[mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)]  
Sent: 01 April 2011 17:07  
To: [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
Subject: Re: 24: Too many open files

## write the ulimit number into profile file. then source it.

blog: [http://chenxiaoyu.org](http://chenxiaoyu.org)

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 11:58 PM, Richard K.  
\<[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)[mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)\> wrote:  
Hi. Hope someone can answer which open file limit is being reached  
(doesn’t seem right to me)

tail error.log  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)  
2011/04/01 15:43:46 [alert] 18945#0: accept() failed (24: Too many open  
files)

lsof -n | wc -l  
4321

cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max  
1645538

ulimit -n  
1000000

Why it the limit being reached?

Many thanks  
Richard

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rkoskela)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/24-too-many-open-files/205243/5 "2011-04-01T18:09:10Z")

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Hi  
Thanks for the reply.

The only references to worker in my config are:

worker\_processes 4;  
events  
{  
worker\_connections 4096;  
}

I read in nginx wiki if worker\_rlimit\_nofile is not defined, the value  
from ulimit -n is used?

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**Author:** ![rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rkoskela)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 10:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/24-too-many-open-files/205243/6 "2011-04-01T22:49:23Z")

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On Fri, Apr 01, 2011 at 04:08:30PM +0000, Richard K. wrote:

> I read in nginx wiki if worker\_rlimit\_nofile is not defined, the value from  
> ulimit -n is used?

“ulimit -n” sets/shows the limit of you current login session.  
If you run nginx in this session, it will inherit this value.  
If it run at bootstrap or something else the limit may be other.  
The simplest way is to set it in nginx.conf:

worker\_processes 4;  
worker\_rlimit\_nofile 100000;

–  
Igor S.

> **[Igor Sysoev](http://sysoev.ru/en/)**

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rkoskela)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/24-too-many-open-files/205243/7 "2011-04-01T22:59:15Z")

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Hi  
Thank you, I will try this.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rkoskela)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 10:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/24-too-many-open-files/205243/8 "2011-04-01T22:40:08Z")

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Can anyone shed any light?  
It really hurts at peak time 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@rkoskela](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rkoskela)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/24-too-many-open-files/205243/9 "2011-04-01T23:11:36Z")

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If this is on a linux host. “cat /proc//status”.

Look at value for FDSize.

Sridhar

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 4:58 PM, Richard K.