As changing NR_OPEN from 1024*1024 to 16*1024*1024 was considered a litle bit dangerous, just let it default to 1024*1024 but adds a new sysctl to let sysadmins change this value. Thank you [PATCH] get rid of NR_OPEN and introduce a sysctl_nr_open NR_OPEN (historically set to 1024*1024) actually forbids processes to open more than 1024*1024 handles. Unfortunatly some production servers hit the not so 'ridiculously high value' of 1024*1024 file descriptors per process. Changing NR_OPEN is not considered safe because of vmalloc space potential exhaust. This patch introduces a new sysctl (/proc/sys/fs/nr_open) wich defaults to 1024*1024, so that admins can decide to change this limit if their workload needs it. Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet Cc: Alan Cox Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt | 8 ++++++++ Documentation/sysctl/fs.txt | 10 ++++++++++ fs/file.c | 8 +++++--- include/linux/fs.h | 2 +- kernel/sys.c | 2 +- kernel/sysctl.c | 8 ++++++++ 6 files changed, 33 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)