Re: syslogd: ... : Too many open files

["Steven M. Bellovin" <smb%cs.columbia.edu@localhost>]

On Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:39:45 -0400
Jason Mitchell <jmitchel%bigjar.com@localhost> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
>     I'm attempting to set up syslogd to log messages from roughly 65
> IP addresses to 65 different files. But when I attempt to run
> syslogd, it complains of "Too many open files" around file #58. This
> error also prevents it from opening a socket to listen on UDP port
> 514. I'm running NetBSD 3.1, but I've compiled the syslogd from 4.0
> and the problem is there as well and there's no newer version in CVS.
> I've looked at the code, but I can't tell where the limit on open
> files comes from. I've tried increasing kern.maxfiles to 4000, with
> no effect.
> 
It's probably a ulimit issue for syslogd. Try putting

        ulimit -n 256

in /etc/rc.conf.d/syslogd and restart it.


                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb