maxfiles, file table, descriptors, etc...

[Kevin A. Pieckiel]

First, do open sockets (inet or unix) or pipes (via pipe(2)) count
against kern.maxfiles, kern.maxfilesperproc, and other related limits?

Second, are there sysctl variables that indicate the size or usage
of the file table?  Or is this simply indicated by maxfiles (and
perhaps others)?  Or is there a program that will report this info?

Third, where is the limit for the number of file descriptors that
can be open set?  Or is this the same limit as maxfiles, etc?

Fourth, is there a difference between an open file and an open
descriptor?

These questions were spawned from the errors possibly returned by
pipe(2).  I'm not clear on what the entities and limits are as
they involve such things as the file table, open files, open
descriptors, etc.

Finally, are answers to these questions OS specific, or are they
part of a standard indicating how such things behave?

Thanks,
Kevin


"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

---
This message was signed by GnuPG.  E-Mail kpieckiel-pgp at smartrafficenter.org
to receive my public key.  You may also get my key from pgpkeys.mit.edu;
my ID is 0xF1604E92 and will expire on 01 January 2004.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 187 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/attachments/20030420/0fdc008c/attachment.bin