mutt hitting resource limit on number of open files

[Seth Forshee]

Binary package hint: mutt

After a while of using mutt on natty, certain operations stop working and I start seeing messages like "Could not create temporary file!" and "Too many open files!" Mutt seems to have hit its resource limit on the number of open files (RLIMIT_NOFILE):

 $ ls -1 /proc/`pgrep mutt`/fd | wc -l
 1024
 $ grep 'open files' /proc/`pgrep mutt`/limits
 Max open files 1024 1024 files

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: mutt 1.5.21-2ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-4.31-generic 2.6.38-rc5
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-4-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Feb 22 10:01:31 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: mutt

[Seth Forshee (sforshee)]

This only happens with mutt-patched. When running /usr/bin/mutt-org the number of open fds stays in the single digits.

The vast majority of fds that mutt has open when this happens are for folders named "cur", so I'm guessing this is localized to maildir mailboxes. I compared the sidebar patch in bzr to the one in 1.5.21-2ubuntu3, and there are changes there that look like they could be a fix for this issue.

[Antonio Radici (antonio-dyne)]

This is a sidebar problem and it has been fixed in Debian mutt 1.5.21-4

[Greg Grossmeier (greg.grossmeier)]

Linked the Debian bug that I believe Antonio is referring to (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=620854). Set this Ubuntu bug status to Triaged as it seems it is a known issue and fixed upstream. If the original reporter can verify this, that would be ideal.

[Seth Forshee (sforshee)]

I've been running Debian mutt 1.5.21-4 for several hours now, and the open file count is holding steady in the single digits. Looks like it's fixed there.

[Greg Grossmeier (greg.grossmeier)]

Thanks Seth!

So, this will presumably be fixed in Oneiric, but can this fix be backported/SRU'd to Natty when it hits the Oneiric repo?