Re: file descriptors

"David Parker" <dparker(at)tazznetworks(dot)com> writes:
> We have started getting the error
> FATAL: terminating connection due to administrator command
> in some of our processes. Searching in the archives, I gather that this
> is caused by a SIGTERM, and might be coming from a ulimit problem.

It is coming from a SIGTERM, but I'm not aware of any platforms that
respond to exceeding the ulimit open-files limit by SIGTERM'ing the
process. I think you're barking up the wrong tree.

> We are running Solaris 9/Intel, and the ulimit for nofiles for the
> database owner process is 256. I suspect this needs to be set to
> "unlimited", which I don't think should cause a problem on Solaris (?).

I think it *would* cause a problem, unless Solaris can support unlimited
numbers of open files --- we have certainly seen PG eat all available
file table slots on other kernels. I don't recommend raising nofiles.
The backends are perfectly capable of working within the nofiles limit
you set, and 256 seems high enough to avoid thrashing.

regards, tom lane