Re: How many file descriptors does postgres need?

Steve Atkins <steve(at)blighty(dot)com> writes:
> Postgresql is supposed to cope with file descriptor limits quite happily, as long as the OS actually restricts the number of files a process can have open. If it doesn't restrict the number, just falls over if there's too many, there's a postgresql configuration option to limit it (max_files_per_process, I think).

Usually the problem is not that Postgres falls over, but that everything
else on the box starts to fall over once PG has run the kernel out of
file descriptors. Make sure max_connections * max_files_per_process is
less than the kernel's file table size, with enough daylight for the
machine's other activities.

regards, tom lane