imap-login: Fatal: pipe() failed: Too many open files

[Edgar Pettijohn]

On 01/26/15 04:27, Leander Schäfer wrote:
> Am 26.01.15 um 02:24 schrieb Edgar Pettijohn:
>> Sorry didn't scroll to the bottom to see the dovecot -n.  I'm 
>> assuming freebsd has an /etc/login.conf similiar to openbsd.  If so 
>> you may need to do something similiar to this:
>>
>> dovecot:\
>>                 :openfiles-cur=512:\
>>                 :openfiles-max=2048:\
>>                 :tc=daemon:
>>
>> Rebuild the login.conf.db file if necessary:
>>
>>         # [ -f /etc/login.conf.db ] && cap_mkdb /etc/login.conf
>>
>> Hope this helps.
>>
> Thanks for the hint. FreeBSD takes sysctl(8) settings as a base to 
> ulimit(3). I even tried tuning on those values.
>
> sysctl kern.maxfilesperproc=405587
> sysctl kern.maxfiles=428433
>
> Unfortunately this does not solve the problem. I don't think it is the 
> root of the problem.
>
> The current value - even with Dovecot and Postfix already running is: 
> kern.openfiles: 675
> It is just, that Dovecot is kind of in a frozen condition when trying 
> to login to it via telnet(1).
>
>
> Am 26.01.15 um 02:20 schrieb Reindl Harald:
>>
>> Am 26.01.2015 um 02:13 schrieb Leander Schäfer:
>>> I just checked my ulimit again and it really seems like it has more
>>> than enough - so I still don't understand what I've configured wrong
>>> here ;/
>>>
>>> root at WM-01 [~]$ su -m dovecot -c "ulimit -a"
>>> socket buffer size       (bytes, -b) unlimited
>>> core file size          (blocks, -c) unlimited
>>> data seg size           (kbytes, -d) 33554432
>>> file size               (blocks, -f) unlimited
>>> max locked memory       (kbytes, -l) 131072
>>> max memory size         (kbytes, -m) 7067352
>>> open files                      (-n) 205587
>>> pipe size            (512 bytes, -p) 1
>>> stack size              (kbytes, -s) 8192
>>> cpu time               (seconds, -t) unlimited
>>> max user processes              (-u) 11278
>>> virtual memory          (kbytes, -v) unlimited
>>> swap size               (kbytes, -w) unlimited
>>
>> besides that "imap-login" typically does *not* run under the same 
>> user (here dovenull versus dovecot) who tells you that 205587 is 
>> "more than enough" just because it is a high value?
> Yes, because I am monitoring those values via Munin. I can clearly see 
> that my system does not require a value even close to this. By average 
> my system has 673 files open. In FreeBSD sysctl(8) is the base for 
> ulimit(3) - meaning since I don't maintain user specific ulimit(3) - 
> it is also the same values for dovenull, postfix, vmail and every 
> other user on the system. My current sysctl(8) values should provide 
> way enough space to grow super large:
>
> sysctl kern.maxfilesperproc=205587
> sysctl kern.maxfiles=228433
>
>
> And this is where it becomes so absurd to me. I don't see where I 
> should tune anymore. I more and more get the feeling it is a 
> configuration error of dovecot itself?!
>
>
> Thanks & Best Regards,
> Leander
>>
>>
>>
I know thats the error it gave me until I changed the settings for 
dovecot in login.conf.  The only other thing I would suggest trying is 
install dovecot from the opposite of what you installed it from either 
packages or ports, and see if its a bug in the build.