Re: [Evolution] Maildir responsible for "too many open files" error?

[Not Zed <notzed ximian com>]

On Mon, 2004-04-26 at 10:05 -0600, Phil Sackinger wrote:
> I'm running Evo 1.4.5 and use Maildir format for both my inbox coming
> from an IMAP server on a Solaris box and many local folders in my home
> directory (sitting on an NFS server).
>
> A long-time problem I've had is when Evo has run for a few days
> typically it displays an error message about
> too many open files (see attached). It's hard to get much done, fetching
> new messages from my IMAP server gets caught. 
>
> Usually, I must close Evo and do a --force-shutdown, (aka killev) before
> restarting and resuming work. [This is actually an improvement - under
> Evo 1.2.* restarting wouldn't work, had to rm -r .gconf directories and
> go through the whole setup wizard thing and endure hundreds of
> suddenly-reborn calendar notification messages.]
>
> Is Maildir inherently more susceptible to this problem? Would it go away
> if I converted my Inbox and/or local folders to mbox (it seems like One
> Big File like mbox would have fewer open files, at least)? Are there
> other possible settings that could be responsible? (My shell ulimit
> shows 1024 maximum open files possible.)?
Hmm, not necessarily.  Or at least, not insomuch as it should actually matter.  When you view mails for instance they are loaded into memory and closed afterwards - in either case.

Most of the file descriptors evolution uses aren't for accessing the mail files!  They're used for indexes, pipes to external processes, pipes to internal processes, sockets, etc.

Since it happens after a few days, it sounds like you might have a file descriptor leak.  Also since you have to force-shutdown, it may not actually be the mailer code anyway.

When it happens next, try using lsof to see what all the file descriptors are pointing to - that might point to an issue.

And open a bug report on bugzilla.ximian.com with any details.

Michael Zucchi <notzed ximian com> Ximian Evolution and Free Software Developer

Novell, Inc.