> I'm not even 100% certain there's really much of a specific reason why there has to be a low hard limit on file descriptors.
There was. Even if a file handle is 128 bytes or so, on a system with only 10s or 100s of KB you wouldn't want it to get out of control. On multi-user especially, you don't want one process going nuts to open so many files that it eats all available kernel RAM.
Today, not so much though an out-of-control program is still out of control.
There was. Even if a file handle is 128 bytes or so, on a system with only 10s or 100s of KB you wouldn't want it to get out of control. On multi-user especially, you don't want one process going nuts to open so many files that it eats all available kernel RAM.
Today, not so much though an out-of-control program is still out of control.