I have seen various posts here about raising the open file limit on Linux systems for specific users (which is performed in a variety of different ways depending on the Linux distro being talked about).
I have an Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS server running Dovecot, under a user called "dovecot";
ps aux | grep dovecot
dovecot 473 0.0 0.0 14320 2152 ? S 12:11 0:00 imap-login
dovecot 1619 0.0 0.0 14324 2096 ? S Jan25 0:05 imap-login
dovecot 2652 0.0 0.0 14180 1892 ? S 13:44 0:00 pop3-login
dovecot 3627 0.0 0.0 14180 1892 ? S 14:13 0:00 pop3-login
dovecot 3776 0.0 0.0 14180 1892 ? S 14:16 0:00 pop3-login
dovecot 4056 0.0 0.0 14320 2112 ? S 14:19 0:00 imap-login
.....
ps aux | grep dovecot | wc
178
How can I raise the open file limit for a service? Do I perform the same actions for raising the limits of use, upon the user the service runs as?
So on this system I could increase the limit in /etc/security/limits.conf for the dovecot user, but how will this relate to my service. Would I need to restart the service for the new settings to effect, or as new processes spawn will they inherit the new settings?
I can't see how changing this limit will tie in with a long running service as opposed to a user who logs in and out.