proc/sys/fs file-nr?

proc/sys/fs file-nr?

[John Coppens]

Hi.

The last few days I had a problem with an image viewer, and thought I'd investigate
a little. The program makes thumbnails, and after a while, complains about
'too many files open'. I found a reference to the proc/sys/fs/file-max and
wanted to check file-nr first. /usr/src/linux/Documentation states:

"The three  values  in file-nr denote the number of allocated file handles, the
number of  used file handles, and the maximum number of file handles."

I'm confused now. Each time I open a new directory with images, the second number
_decreases_! It _increases_ when I close the viewer program. Is this normal?

Finally, the viewer (gThumb) gives up at: 

1961    50      8192

with the 'too many...' error. Shouldn't the number increase till 8192? This is
the number in file-max? (Kernel 2.4.18)

John

Re: proc/sys/fs file-nr?

[Samuel Flory]

On Fri, 2002-08-16 at 14:33, John Coppens wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> The last few days I had a problem with an image viewer, and thought I'd investigate
> a little. The program makes thumbnails, and after a while, complains about
> 'too many files open'. I found a reference to the proc/sys/fs/file-max and
> wanted to check file-nr first. /usr/src/linux/Documentation states:
> 
> "The three  values  in file-nr denote the number of allocated file handles, the
> number of  used file handles, and the maximum number of file handles."
> 
> I'm confused now. Each time I open a new directory with images, the second number
> _decreases_! It _increases_ when I close the viewer program. Is this normal?
> 
> Finally, the viewer (gThumb) gives up at: 
> 
> 1961    50      8192
> 
> with the 'too many...' error. Shouldn't the number increase till 8192? This is
> the number in file-max? (Kernel 2.4.18)

Check inode-nr in addition to file-max.  What is your ulimit set to.  I
think the default is 1024.

[root@flory sflory]# ulimit -a
core file size        (blocks, -c) 0
data seg size         (kbytes, -d) unlimited
file size             (blocks, -f) unlimited
max locked memory     (kbytes, -l) unlimited
max memory size       (kbytes, -m) unlimited
open files                    (-n) 1024
pipe size          (512 bytes, -p) 8
stack size            (kbytes, -s) 8192
cpu time             (seconds, -t) unlimited
max user processes            (-u) 4086
virtual memory        (kbytes, -v) unlimited
[root@flory sflory]# ulimit -n 2048
[root@flory sflory]# ulimit -n
2048

Re: proc/sys/fs file-nr?

[John Coppens]

On 16 Aug 2002 15:22:27 -0700
Samuel Flory <sflory@rackable.com> wrote:

> 
> Check inode-nr in addition to file-max.  What is your ulimit set to.  I
> think the default is 1024.
> 
core file size (blocks)     0
data seg size (kbytes)      unlimited
file size (blocks)          unlimited
max locked memory (kbytes)  unlimited
max memory size (kbytes)    unlimited
open files                  1024
pipe size (512 bytes)       8
stack size (kbytes)         8192
cpu time (seconds)          unlimited
max user processes          2047
virtual memory (kbytes)     unlimited

Ok. I suppose open files is the limit, but the problem appears much before that.
Anyway, I tried to change with ulimit -n 2048, but the gThumb still gives up.
(there are only 900 images in the directory, and the program gives up at maybe
600).

The numbers in /proc/sys/fs/file-nr change with a rate of about 3 - 4 each
thumbnail that is opened.

John