rlim_fd_max

Description

Specifies the “hard” limit on file descriptors that a single process might have open. Overriding this limit requires superuser privilege.

Data Type

Signed integer

Default

65,536

Range

1 to MAXINT

Units

File descriptors

Dynamic?

No

Validation

None

When to Change

When the maximum number of open files for a process is not enough. Other limitations in system facilities can mean that a larger number of file descriptors is not as useful as it might be. For example:

• A 32-bit program using standard I/O is limited to 256 file descriptors. A 64-bit program using standard I/O can use up to 2 billion descriptors. Specifically, standard I/O refers to the stdio(3C) functions in libc(3LIB).

• select is by default limited to 1024 descriptors per fd_set. For more information, see select(3C). Starting with the Solaris 7 release, 32-bit application code can be recompiled with a larger fd_set size (less than or equal to 65,536). A 64-bit application uses an fd_set size of 65,536, which cannot be changed.

An alternative to changing this on a system wide basis is to use the plimit(1) command. If a parent process has its limits changed by plimit, all children inherit the increased limit. This alternative is useful for daemons such as inetd.

Commitment Level

Unstable

Change History

For information, see rlim_fd_max (Solaris 8 Release).