How do I increase the open files limit for a non-root user?
- by iCode
This is happening on Ubuntu Release 12.04 (precise) 64-bit Kernel Linux 3.2.0-25-virtual
I'm trying to increase the number of open files allowed for a user. This is for an my ecplise java application where the current limit of 1024 is not enough.
According to the posts I've found so far, I should be able to put lines into
/etc/security/limits.conf like this;
soft nofile 4096
hard nofile 4096
to increase the number of open files allowed for all users.
But, that's not working for me, and I think the problem is not related to that file.
For all users, the default limit is 1024, regardless of what is in /etc/security/limits.conf (I have been rebooting after changing that file)
$ ulimit -n
1024
Now, despite the entries in /etc/security/limits.conf I can't increase that;
$ ulimit -n 2048
-bash: ulimit: open files: cannot modify limit: Operation not permitted
The weird part is that I can change the limit downwards, but can't change it upwards - even to go back to a number which is below the original limit;
$ ulimit -n 800
$ ulimit -n
800
$ ulimit -n 900
-bash: ulimit: open files: cannot modify limit: Operation not permitted
As root, I can change that limit to whatever I want, up or down. It doesn't even seem to care about the supposedly system-wide limit in /proc/sys/fs/file-max
# cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max
188897
# ulimit -n 188898
# ulimit -n
188898
So far, I haven't found any way to increase the open files limit for a non-root user, and I really don't want to be running my application as root.
How should I properly do this? I have looked at all the posted and tried the given options but no luck!
