[Dovecot] Inotify instance limit for user exceeded, disabling?

[dovecot at corwyn.net]

I'm seeing this message in my /var/log/maillog:

May 26 12:35:00 agencymail dovecot: IMAP(info at example.com): Inotify 
instance limit for user exceeded, disabling. Increase 
/proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances

I rummaged through google, and found :
http://www.dovecot.org/list/dovecot-cvs/2008-May/011132.html

which says I need to increase /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances 
(no surprise given the error message really).  I can fix that with 
echo 256 > /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances , but  as /proc is 
temporary, so if I change it won't it break if/when the system reboots?

The error message also implies that something has been disabled. If I 
increase /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances will it fix 
automatically, or do I need to do something else?  since it's a 
kernel message, I suspect just restarting dovecot won't do it.

And what exactly is breaking when I receive this notification?  The 
proc docs indicate:
/proc/sys/fs/inotify (since Linux 2.6.13)
This directory contains files max_queued_events, max_user_instances, 
and max_user_watches, that can be used to limit the amount of kernel 
memory consumed by the inotify interface. For further details, see 
<http://linux.die.net/man/7/inotify>inotify(7).

Is this dovecot monitoring for new mail?

thanks

Rick



[root at agencymail inotify]# dovecot -n
# 1.1.8: /etc/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 2.6.18-92.el5 i686 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 
release 5.2 (Tikanga) ext3
ssl_cert_file: /etc/httpd/certs/agencymail_example_com.crt
ssl_key_file: /etc/httpd/certs/agencymail.example.com.key.no.password
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable(default): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(imap): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(pop3): /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login
login_max_processes_count: 256
mail_uid: 1015
mail_gid: 105
mail_location: maildir:/var/spool/mail/%d/%n/Maildir
mail_executable(default): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(imap): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(pop3): /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3
mail_plugins(default): acl quota imap_quota expire trash
mail_plugins(imap): acl quota imap_quota expire trash
mail_plugins(pop3): expire quota
mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3
imap_client_workarounds(default): delay-newmail outlook-idle
imap_client_workarounds(imap): delay-newmail outlook-idle
imap_client_workarounds(pop3):
pop3_client_workarounds(default):
pop3_client_workarounds(imap):
pop3_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh
dict_db_config: /etc/dovecot-db.conf
auth default:
   mechanisms: plain login
   passdb:
     driver: sql
     args: /etc/dovecot-sql.conf
   userdb:
     driver: passwd
   userdb:
     driver: sql
     args: /etc/dovecot-sql.conf
   userdb:
     driver: static
   socket:
     type: listen
     client:
       path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth
       mode: 432
       user: postfix
       group: postfix
     master:
       path: /var/run/dovecot/auth-master
       mode: 384
       user: vuser
       group: vuser
plugin:
   quota: maildir
   quota_rule: *:storage=102400000
   quota_rule2: Trash:storage=100M
   acl: vfile:/etc/dovecot/acls
   trash: /etc/dovecot-trash.conf
   expire: Trash 14 Trash/* 14 Spam 14
   expire_dict: proxy::expire
dict:
   expire: mysql:/etc/dovecot-dict-expire.conf




Rick Steeves
http://www.sinister.net

"The more I learn, it seems, the less I know." Frazz