launchctl limit maxfiles
ulimit -a- Reboot the system and enter recovery mode - keep cmd (⌘) + R pressed
- Disable system integrity check from terminal, by typing csrutil disable
- Reboot
- Create the files below
- Reboot
- Enable system integrity check, by typing csrutil enable
- Reboot the system to complete the changes
The last two columns are the soft and hard limits, respectively.
To adjust open files limits on a system-wide basis in Mac OS X Sierra, you must create two configuration files.
The first is a property list (aka plist) file in /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxfiles.plist that contains the following XML configuration:
sudo vi /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxfiles.plist<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>limit.maxfiles</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>launchctl</string>
<string>limit</string>
<string>maxfiles</string>
<string>64000</string>
<string>524288</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>ServiceIPC</key>
<false/>
</dict>
</plist> This will set the open files limit to 64000.
The second plist configuration file should be stored in /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxproc.plist with the following contents:
sudo vi /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxproc.plist<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple/DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>limit.maxproc</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>launchctl</string>
<string>limit</string>
<string>maxproc</string>
<string>2048</string>
<string>2048</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true />
<key>ServiceIPC</key>
<false />
</dict>
</plist>- Change the owner for the created files
sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxfiles.plist
sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxproc.plist- Load these new settings:
sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxfiles.plist
sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxproc.plist- Reboot & Enable system integrity check
csrutil enable- Finally, check that the limits are correct:
launchctl limit maxfiles
ulimit -aReturned values should be the same
Both plist files must be owned by root:wheel and have permissions -rw-r--j--. This permissions should be in place by default, but you can ensure that they are in place by running sudo chmod 644 . While the steps explained above will cause system-wide open file limits to be correctly set upon restart, you can apply them manually by running launchctl limit.