Question

I’m having problems with my open files limits when running my script through command line vs through apache.

My apache server is running under the user “apache” and it has its limits overridden in the /etc/security/limits.conf file as follow:

apache soft nofile 10240
apache hard nofile 40960

I’ve got a simple script that I use for testing:

<?php
system('whoami');
system('ulimit -a | grep open');

When I hit this script through my browser I get:

apache
open files                      (-n) 1024

But when I run it in command line under user apache I get:

[reza@app pdf]$ sudo -u apache php script.php
apache
open files                      (-n) 10240

Can someone explain to me what would cause this discrepancy?

(not sure if it’s a ServerFault question, feel free to move it there)

Cheers

Answer 1

When you run from the command line, the limits for the apache user apply. When you hit the web server, the limits from the environment that launched the web server apply. You probably want to add ulimit statements to the script that launched the apache web server.