On Fri, 2025-08-15 at 20:55 -0700, Ken Mankoff wrote: > I'd like to report a bug but don't know what package, and reportbug > says I should email this list. I'm running Debian Trixie KDE Wayland, > and repeatedly seeing "Too many open files". > > Two examples: > > $ dolphin . > kf.solid.backends.fstab: Failed to acquire watch file descriptor Too > many open files > > $ tail -f some_big_file > tail: inotify cannot be used, reverting to polling: Too many open > files
It sounds like both of these messages are related to 'inotify' (and/or one of the other kernel APIs for watching for file changes like 'fanotify'). There are separate limits for that sort of file descriptors, which you can find in e.g.: /proc/sys/fs/inotify/* /proc/sys/fs/fanotify/* You can also read them using 'sysctl' like so: sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_instances Or set them like so: sudo sysctl -w fs.inotify.max_user_instances=256 That sets the new limit temporarily until next boot (ideal for testing). If you want to set new limits permanently, the best way is to create a new *.conf file (e.g. 'local.conf' or 'inotiy-limits.conf') in '/etc/sysctl.d/' with lines like this: fs.inotify.max_user_instances = 256 You can also add comment lines starting with '#' in the file to document what/why you are changing those. -- Jan Claeys (please don't CC me when replying to the list)
