Ubuntu – How to increase the open files limit for a non-root user

ulimit

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 my eclipse 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 rebooted 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

But even I get eclipse to run as root, my application still crashes because of "Too Many Open File" exception!

So far, I haven't found any way to increase the open files limit for a non-root user.

How should I properly do this? I have looked at several other posts but no luck!

Best Answer

The ulimit command by default changes the HARD limits, which you (a user) can lower, but cannot raise.

Use the -S option to change the SOFT limit, which can range from 0-{HARD}.

I have actually aliased ulimit to ulimit -S, so it defaults to the soft limits all the time.

alias ulimit='ulimit -S'

As for your issue, you're missing a column in your entries in /etc/security/limits.conf.

There should be FOUR columns, but the first is missing in your example.

* soft nofile 4096
* hard nofile 4096

The first column describes WHO the limit is to apply for. '*' is a wildcard, meaning all users. To raise the limits for root, you have to explicitly enter 'root' instead of '*'.

You also need to edit /etc/pam.d/common-session* and add the following line to the end:

session required pam_limits.so
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