[COUCHDB-1445] CouchDB deletes .view files if it can't open them, even if the error is "emfile".

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Blocker
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 1.1.1, 1.3
• Fix Version/s: 1.2, 1.3
• Component/s: JavaScript View Server
• Assignee: Randall Leeds
• Reporter: Jan Lehnardt
• Created: 18/Mar/12 20:35
• Updated: 29/Oct/12 18:41
• Resolved: 28/Oct/12 16:58

Description

Via Stefan Kögl on dev@:

Another thing I noticed during my tests of CouchDB 1.2.x. I redirected
live traffic to the instance and after a rather short time, requests
were failing with the following information in the logs:

[Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:39:24 GMT] [error] [<0.27554.2>]
{error_report,<0.31.0>,
{<0.27554.2>,std_error,
[

{application,mochiweb}

,
"Accept failed error",
"

{error,emfile}

"]}}
[Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:39:24 GMT] [error] [<0.27554.2>]
{error_report,<0.31.0>,
{<0.27554.2>,crash_report,
[[{initial_call,
{mochiweb_acceptor,init,
['Argument_1','Argument_2',
'Argument__3']}},

{pid,<0.27554.2>}

,

{registered_name,[]}

,
{error_info,
{exit,

{error,accept_failed}

,
[

{mochiweb_acceptor,init,3}

,

{proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3}

]}},

{ancestors, [couch_httpd,couch_secondary_services, couch_server_sup,<0.32.0>]}

,

{messages,[]}

,

{links,[<0.129.0>]}

,

{dictionary,[]}

,

{trap_exit,false}

,

{status,running}

,

{heap_size,233}

,

{stack_size,24}

,

{reductions,244}

],
[]]}}

I think "emfile" means that CouchDB (or mochiweb?) couldn't open any
more files / connections. I've set the (hard and soft) nofile limit for
user couchdb to 4096, but didn't raise the ERL_MAX_PORTS accordingly.
Anyway, as soon as the error occured, CouchDB started writing most of my
view files from scratch, rendering the instance unusable.

I'd expect CouchDB to fail more gracefully when the maximum number of
open files is reached. Is this a bug or expected behaviour?