Re: [SLUG] dpkg: too many open files

[David Fitch <davidf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Sep 06, 2002 at 03:14:51PM +1000, Andrew Bennetts wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 06, 2002 at 02:57:37PM +1000, Brad Thomson wrote:
> > I've got a problem with dpkg on Debian unstable, that's preventing further
> > package installation (I can remove packages fine).
> > 
> > Here's some output to illlustrate:
> [..snip..]
> >  unable to create ./usr/X11R6/man/man3/XGetWMIconName.3x.gz': Too many open
> > files
> 
> No answers, but some questions that might help...
> 
> Do you have any resource limits set (I think you can check this with the
> ulimit command)?
> 
> How many files does "lsof | wc -l" say you have open (run it as root to
> get a system-wide figure).

yep it's got to be file descriptors.
Check system limits 'cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max' and the lsof
command Andrew mentions.  Shell limits are: 'ulimit -n'
(it's a bash builtin so 'man bash' and search for ulimit).

Dave.