Justin's answer tells you how to raise the number of open files available total to the whole system. But I think you're asking how to raise the per-user limit, globally. The answer to that is to add the following lines to /etc/security/limits.conf
:
* soft nofile 2048
* hard nofile 2048
(Where the * means all users.)
There's some summary documentation in that file itself and in man limits.conf
. This is implemented via the pam_limits.so
module which is called for various services configured in /etc/pam.d/
.
And, I have to admit, I have no idea where that 1024 default comes from. And believe me, I looked. I even tried without the pam_limits module configured, and it's still there. It must be hard-coded in somewhere, but I'm not exactly sure where.
Debian has a release maturity model, where Unstable, Sid, is where all the new stuff goes in. If it sticks, then Unstable becomes Testing, in which nothing can be added during testing. This typically lasts 1.5 - 2 years. If no problem at that point, Testing becomes the new Stable release.
Security updates are made to Stable first, then to Testing.
Debian Stable is notoriously stable, and notoriously behind the times, but very reliable for servers.
Ubuntu came along and said: we take Debian Unstable, make it more stable, add all the latest gadgets, drivers, etc, and release it.
Ubuntu then works at the security updates, package updates, etc, for their Ubuntu releases.
Note that I gladly use Ubuntu on the desktop, but I stick to Debian Stable for servers.
Makes sense?
Best Answer
I think the confusion comes from the fact that the underlying system call that ulimit wraps is called setrlimit.
excerpt from the ulimit man page
Additionally if you look at the
setrlimit
man page the underlying data structure which contains the limit information is calledrlimit
.excerpt from the setrlimit man page
References