ethereal - too many open files

[Mike Lynch_8]

Hi All

I’ve just installed a copy of ethereal (from www.thewrittenword.com) on HPUX 11.
It all seemed to install ok and even took care of all the dependancies.

However when I run it from /opt/TWWfsw/ethereal/bin , the main window appears but I get a lot of error panes complaining about
too many open files

Could not open global filter file
"/opt/TWWfsw/ethereal010/share/colorfilters": Too many open files.

Could not open filter file
"//.ethereal/colorfilters": Too many open files.

Could not open filter file
"//.ethereal/colorfilters": Too many open files.

Could not open filter file
"//.ethereal/colorfilters": Too many open files.

Could not open filter file
"//.ethereal/colorfilters": Too many open files.

Could not open filter file
"//.ethereal/colorfilters": Too many open files.

Could not open filter file
"//.ethereal/colorfilters": Too many open files.

I don’t think it’s a maxfiles issue because if I run sar while firing up ethereal I get :

hpdev-root$:sar -v 5 10

HP-UX hpdev B.11.00 U 9000/800 03/30/06

12:13:20 text-sz ov proc-sz ov inod-sz ov file-sz ov
12:13:25 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2085/34816 0 1470/63498 0
12:13:30 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2178/34816 0 1473/63498 0
12:13:35 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2237/34816 0 1526/63498 0
12:13:40 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2162/34816 0 1526/63498 0
12:13:45 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2164/34816 0 1528/63498 0
12:13:50 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2164/34816 0 1528/63498 0
12:13:55 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2162/34816 0 1528/63498 0
12:14:00 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2157/34816 0 1526/63498 0
12:14:05 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2079/34816 0 1526/63498 0
12:14:10 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2065/34816 0 1526/63498 0

Also, I can’t seem to find ethereal.conf or a preferences file anywhere.

Thanks

Mike

[Antonio Cardoso_1]

maybe reaching configured system limits, check
kmtune -q nfile
kmtune -q maxfiles

[Antonio Cardoso_1]

maybe reaching configured system limits, check
kmtune -q nfile
kmtune -q maxfiles

Also, check with sar -v 1 10
while starting ethereal.

[Mike Lynch_8]

This is what I get when I run kmtune
kmtune -q nfile
nfile (15*NPROC+2048)

kmtune -q maxfiles
maxfiles 60

And this is sar -v 1 15 during the startup of ethereal

hpdev-root$:sar -v 1 15

HP-UX hpdev B.11.00 U 9000/800 03/30/06

13:10:55 text-sz ov proc-sz ov inod-sz ov file-sz ov
13:10:56 N/A N/A 189/4096 0 2029/34816 0 1469/63498 0
13:10:57 N/A N/A 189/4096 0 2014/34816 0 1469/63498 0
13:10:58 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2048/34816 0 1470/63498 0
13:10:59 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2063/34816 0 1472/63498 0
13:11:00 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2094/34816 0 1474/63498 0
13:11:01 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2093/34816 0 1473/63498 0
13:11:02 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2093/34816 0 1527/63498 0
13:11:03 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2093/34816 0 1526/63498 0
13:11:04 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2093/34816 0 1526/63498 0
13:11:05 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2093/34816 0 1526/63498 0
13:11:06 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2086/34816 0 1526/63498 0
13:11:07 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2086/34816 0 1526/63498 0
13:11:08 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2086/34816 0 1528/63498 0
13:11:09 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2086/34816 0 1526/63498 0
13:11:10 N/A N/A 190/4096 0 2086/34816 0 1526/63498 0

Thanks

Mike

[Antonio Cardoso_1]

Hi Mike,
I think your problem comes from the maxfiles parameter.
In my system, I set
maxfiles to 2048 instead of 60

To change this, use
sam => kernel configuration => configurable parameters, and set the new value.

This will rebuild kernel and reboot the server.

You should maybe have a look at other parameters according to the processing profile of your server.

r,
antonio.

[Bill Hassell · Accepted solution]

maxfiles is a soft limit (and 60 is somewhat low for specialized applications) so it can be changed without a kernel rebuild. If the program had used the setrlimit() system call, it could have been raised automatically but an interface exists in the POSIX shell. ulimit -n will show the current maxfiles limit, and can be increased up to maxfiles_lim (kernel parameter). Use something like:

ulimit -Sn 500

You can set it to any value larger than Ethereal needs. By using -S you can adjust the current limit higher or lower as desired. The setting stays with the shell and is passed along to all child processes (like Ethereal).