This permissions should be in place by default, but you can ensure that they are in place by running sudo chmod 644. The second plist configuration file should be stored in /Library/LaunchDaemons/ with the following contents: īoth plist files must be owned by root:wheel and have permissions -rw-r-r. This will set the open files limit to 200000. The first is a property list (aka plist) file in /Library/LaunchDaemons/ that contains the following XML configuration: To adjust open files limits on a system-wide basis in Mac OS X Yosemite, you must create two configuration files. The last two columns are the soft and hard limits, respectively. To check the current limits on your Mac OS X system, run: launchctl limit maxfiles

Load these new settings: sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/įinally, check that the limits are correct: launchctl limit maxfiles It seems like there is an entirely different method for changing the open files limit for each version of OS X!Ĭreate a file at /Library/LaunchDaemons/ and paste the following in (feel free to change the two numbers (which are the soft and hard limits, respectively): Ĭhange the owner of your new file: sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/ zshrc or whatever) if you want it to run every time you open a shell. You can add it to your shell configuration file (. That change is also temporary it only lasts for the current shell session.

The command for that is: ulimit -S -n 2048 # or whatever number you choose Up this many files are going to be initiated by the shell you’re Once you’ve done this, the kernel itself will have a maximum number ofįiles but the shell might not.

Note: In OS X 10.10 or lower, you can add setting in /etc/nf like limit maxfiles and it will override whatever you put here. To make the change permanent, use sudo to put your settings in /etc/nf (which you may have to create), like this: kern.maxfiles=20480

sysctl -w kern.maxfilesperproc=18000 (or whatever number you choose).

sysctl -w kern.maxfiles=20480 (or whatever number you choose).

You can increase the limits (at your own risk) with:

To 12,288 and the maximum number of files a given process can open is According to this helpful article (which I recommend reading):īy default, the maximum number of files that Mac OS X can open is set

Too many open files mac