Too many open files

[Rob McMahon]

Rob McMahon wrote:

> Aug 24 16:20:44 narcissus imap[24338]: [ID 240394 local6.error] IOERROR: 
> opening quota file /var/imap/quota/V/user.??????.Trash: Too many open files
> Aug 24 16:21:38 narcissus imap[24338]: [ID 816447 local6.error] warning: 
> cannot open /etc/hosts.deny: Too many open files
>
> and indeed this process has hit the default 256 limit, most of which 
> seem to be quota files.  Other issues were manifesting, IMAP commands 
> never completing for instance, so I had to kill this process, which in 
> turn caused the master process to restart.  Not good.
>   
Has anyone got a handle on this bug ?  It doesn't seem like a slow 
descriptor leak: I've just deleted 250 users in chunks of 20, checking 
carefully on fd usage between each batch, and then on the final 20, 
blatt, it did it again.  It feels like it's some sort of house-keeping 
function kicking in.  I can go around hunting for, and deleting, quota 
roots.  I can up maxfds to try to alleviate the problem.  But, I've got 
no confidence, I've got 4,000 users to delete, and I want to completely 
automate it, and rely on the service staying up once the deed is done.

Rob

-- 
E-Mail:	Rob.McMahon at warwick.ac.uk		PHONE:  +44 24 7652 3037
Rob McMahon, IT Services, Warwick University, Coventry, CV4 7AL, England