"Ed L." <pgsql@bluepolka.net> writes:
> We have 3 clusters with 24K, 34K, and 47K open files according to
> lsof. These same clusters have 164, 179, and 210 active
> connections, respectively. Their schemas, counting the number
> of user and system entries in pg_class as a generously rough
> measure of potential open files, contain roughly 2000 entries
> each. Those open files seem pretty plausible, they're just much
> higher than what we see on the older systems.
Hm. AFAICT from the CVS logs, 7.4.2 and later should have about the
same behavior as 8.1.* in this regard. What version is the older
installation exactly?
You can always reduce max_files_per_process if you want more
conservative behavior.
regards, tom lane