>Yes, and you can arrange for that process to run with a higher limit.

Ahah, I see part of the problem is you don't know what the word "fixed"
means :-).


>The problem at the moment is that it is possible for any user to write
>a program that uses all the files.  This just shouldn't be allowed.

No, acutally it *should* be allowed. Being able to configure systems
into that particular corner is a desirable *feature*, if that's what
you acutally want to do.  Sharp tools for careful expert users, and all that.


>Also the default default limit ought to be a netbsd constant, not depend
>on MAXUSERS.

<splork>. If you are trying to say that it should be a
kernel-config-time parameter, (in adddition to the MAXUSERS default[*])
that's one thing I would probably support.
But it MUST NOT be a constant.

Nothing personaI David, but in all honesty, if you want to communicate
effectively about technical issues (and thus contribute to NetBSD),
you need to be a bit more careful in your writing.


[*] The dependency on MAXUSERS is a historical consequence of
configuring for time-shared machines, where configuring users meant
more open files were appropriate.  That may still be appropriate for
some NetBSD installations: campuses, web-servers, etc, where MAXUSERS
is still a useful knob. If its still useful, we shouldn't gratuitously
break it: we should add another knob in addition to the prior knob.

That's just how we do things.