Question

The default limit for the max open files on Mac OS X is 256 (ulimit -n) and my application needs about 400 file handlers.

I tried to change the limit with setrlimit() but even if the function executes correctly, i’m still limited to 256.

Here is the test program I use:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/resource.h>

main()
{
  struct rlimit rlp;

  FILE *fp[10000];
  int i;

  getrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &rlp);
  printf("before %d %d\n", rlp.rlim_cur, rlp.rlim_max);

  rlp.rlim_cur = 10000;
  setrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &rlp);

  getrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &rlp);
  printf("after %d %d\n", rlp.rlim_cur, rlp.rlim_max);

  for(i=0;i<10000;i++) {
    fp[i] = fopen("a.out", "r");
    if(fp[i]==0) { printf("failed after %d\n", i); break; }
  }

}

and the output is:

before 256 -1
after 10000 -1
failed after 253

I cannot ask the people who use my application to poke inside a /etc file or something. I need the application to do it by itself.

Answer 1

etresoft found the answer on the apple discussion board:

The whole problem here is your
printf() function. When you call
printf(), you are initializing
internal data structures to a certain
size. Then, you call setrlimit() to
try to adjust those sizes. That
function fails because you have
already been using those internal
structures with your printf(). If you
use two rlimit structures (one for
before and one for after), and don’t
print them until after calling
setrlimit, you will find that you can
change the limits of the current
process even in a command line
program. The maximum value is 10240.