dovecot - Oct 2007 - dovecot: pipe() failed: Too many open files

I'm encountering lots of 
Oct 31 11:14:25 postamt dovecot: pipe() failed: Too many open files
errors around midday ever since the latest upgrade to 1.0.7.

The errors appear in pairs like this one:
Oct 31 11:20:01 postamt dovecot: pipe() failed: Too many open files
Oct 31 11:20:01 postamt dovecot: imap-login: Internal login failure:
user=<username>, method=PLAIN, rip=193.175.174.239, lip=141.42.4.250, TLS

What gives?

-- 
Ralf Hildebrandt (Ralf.Hildebrandt at charite.de)             plonk at
charite.de
Postfix - Einrichtung, Betrieb und Wartung       Tel. +49 (0)30-450 570-155
http://www.arschkrebs.de
We're using Postfix - it generally seems to take the approach that the
message that arrives is the message that gets delivered, without any
extra bits being added.                             -- Chris Stratford

* Ralf Hildebrandt <Ralf.Hildebrandt at
charite.de>:
> I'm encountering lots of 
> Oct 31 11:14:25 postamt dovecot: pipe() failed: Too many open files
> errors around midday ever since the latest upgrade to 1.0.7.
> 
> The errors appear in pairs like this one:
> Oct 31 11:20:01 postamt dovecot: pipe() failed: Too many open files
> Oct 31 11:20:01 postamt dovecot: imap-login: Internal login failure:
user=<username>, method=PLAIN, rip=193.175.174.239, lip=141.42.4.250, TLS
> 
> What gives?
Some more details (why is that still 1.0.6 when I made a hg checkout
just today?):

# 1.0.6: /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf
protocols: imap imaps pop3s
ssl_cert_file: /etc/ssl/certs/postamt.pem
ssl_key_file: /etc/ssl/private/postamt.key
disable_plaintext_auth: no
login_dir: /usr/local/var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable(default): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(imap): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(pop3): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login
login_process_per_connection: no
login_process_size: 64
login_processes_count: 16
login_max_processes_count: 256
verbose_proctitle: yes
mail_location: maildir:~/Maildir
mail_read_mmaped: yes
fsync_disable: yes
maildir_copy_with_hardlinks: yes
maildir_copy_preserve_filename: yes
mail_executable(default): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(imap): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(pop3): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3
mail_plugins(default): quota imap_quota
mail_plugins(imap): quota imap_quota
mail_plugins(pop3): quota
mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/pop3
imap_client_workarounds(default): outlook-idle netscape-eoh
imap_client_workarounds(imap): outlook-idle netscape-eoh
imap_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-idle
pop3_lock_session(default): no
pop3_lock_session(imap): no
pop3_lock_session(pop3): yes
pop3_uidl_format(default): 
pop3_uidl_format(imap): 
pop3_uidl_format(pop3): %v-%u
pop3_client_workarounds(default): 
pop3_client_workarounds(imap): 
pop3_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh
namespace:
  type: private
  separator: .
  prefix: INBOX.
  inbox: yes
auth default:
  mechanisms: plain login
  cache_size: 64
  master_user_separator: *
  verbose: yes
  passdb:
    driver: passwd-file
    args: /usr/local/etc/dovecot.masterusers
    pass: yes
    master: yes
  passdb:
    driver: shadow
  passdb:
    driver: pam
    args: cache_key=%u dovecot
  userdb:
    driver: passwd
  socket:
    type: listen
    client:
      path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth
      mode: 432
      user: postfix
      group: postfix
plugin:
  quota: maildir
  quota: maildir:ignore=Trash
  quota_warning: storage=10%% /usr/local/scripts/quota-warning 90
  quota_warning2: storage=5%% /usr/local/scripts/quota-warning 95
  quota_warning3: storage=1%% /usr/local/scripts/quota-warning 99

-- 
Ralf Hildebrandt (Ralf.Hildebrandt at charite.de)             plonk at
charite.de
Postfix - Einrichtung, Betrieb und Wartung       Tel. +49 (0)30-450 570-155
http://www.arschkrebs.de
| <- You must be smarter than this stick to ride the Internet

On Wed, 2007-10-31 at 13:55 +0100, Ralf Hildebrandt
wrote:
> I'm encountering lots of 
> Oct 31 11:14:25 postamt dovecot: pipe() failed: Too many open files
> errors around midday ever since the latest upgrade to 1.0.7.
> 
> The errors appear in pairs like this one:
> Oct 31 11:20:01 postamt dovecot: pipe() failed: Too many open files
You have too many login/auth/mail processes running and/or your ulimit
-n is too small.

I doubt any change in 1.0.6 or 1.0.7 itself caused this.

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* Timo Sirainen <tss at iki.fi>:
> You have too many login/auth/mail processes running and/or your ulimit
> -n is too small.
It was "ulimit -n"
> I doubt any change in 1.0.6 or 1.0.7 itself caused this.
Coincidence, I guess

-- 
Ralf Hildebrandt (Ralf.Hildebrandt at charite.de)             plonk at
charite.de
Postfix - Einrichtung, Betrieb und Wartung       Tel. +49 (0)30-450 570-155
http://www.arschkrebs.de
God does not play dice.
            -- Einstein