The default file descriptor limit (ulimit -n 1024) is too low

[Mathieu Trudel]

On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 12:18 PM, Etienne Goyer
<etienne.goyer at canonical.com> wrote:
[...]
>> In case this needs to be raised, this should be done on a per server decision by the sysadmin.
>> I don't see why it should be raised in general...
>
> That's the thing: AFAICT, there is no single place where you can raise
> that value system-wide.  Doing so for daemon involve invoking ulimit
> from within their init script (a hack at best).  Or perhaps there *is* a
> way to raise it globally that I do not know about, I which case I would
> love to know about it. :)
>

 /etc/security/limits.conf might be what you're looking for ;)

> Also, if you turn the question around, is there a good reason *not* to
> raise that limit?

As Kees pointed out, there is a good reason not to raise it... However
I do have experiences as well where it was necessary to account for
broken applications (where developers don't have fixing this issue as
a priority).

Note that it often ends up being a matter of personal preference,
especially since a lot of cases, it's not required.

Regards,

/ Matt