How to find out the number of open file descriptors?

skie_knite007 · 12-11-2005, 11:17 AM

Is there any way to find out the number of open file descriptors in a program?

fur · 12-11-2005, 12:38 PM

Code:

Pinky:/var/log# ls /proc/14685/fd | wc -l
16

Where the number between proc/ and /fd is the pid number of the application.

primo · 12-11-2005, 10:23 PM

You could try with getdtablesize() first to know the maximum number of file descriptors, then apply fcntl(2) on each one trying to get information, for example: the close-on-exec flag, discarding anyone that gives errors (errno should be EBADF).

The number that getdtablesize() gives is runtime, so it is the same as getrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE) or sysconf(_SC_OPEN_MAX). I managed to open file descriptors > 100 and then lower the limit with setrlimit() and keep them open, so it's best to grab a maximum value (which may be OPEN_MAX, usually present in <limits.h>).

I will share with you my code that puts all open file descriptors with the close-on-exec flag set on a select set. Changing it to return the number of open file descriptors is easy. Here's I'm using FD_SETSIZE as the upper limit.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/select.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <errno.h>

int get_ncloexec(fd_set *cloexec)
{
    fd_set closet;
    int flags;
    int fd;
    int n = 0;

    FD_ZERO(&closet);

    for (fd = 0; fd < (int) FD_SETSIZE; fd++) {
        errno = 0;
        flags = fcntl(fd, F_GETFD, 0);
        if (flags == -1 && errno) {
            if (errno != EBADF) {
#ifdef DEBUG
                perror("fcntl(F_GETFD)");
#endif
                return -1;
            }
            else
                continue;
        }
        if (flags & FD_CLOEXEC) {
            FD_SET(fd, &closet);
            n++;
        }
    }

    if (cloexec)
        *cloexec = closet;

    return n;
}