getdtablesize(3) Library Functions Manual getdtablesize(3)

getdtablesize - get file descriptor table size

Standard C library (libc, -lc)

#include <unistd.h>
int getdtablesize(void);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

getdtablesize():

    Since glibc 2.20:
        _DEFAULT_SOURCE || ! (_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L)
    glibc 2.12 to glibc 2.19:
        _BSD_SOURCE || ! (_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L)
    Before glibc 2.12:
        _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500

getdtablesize() returns the maximum number of files a process can have open, one more than the largest possible value for a file descriptor.

The current limit on the number of open files per process.

On Linux, getdtablesize() can return any of the errors described for getrlimit(2); see NOTES below.

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

Interface Attribute Value
getdtablesize () Thread safety MT-Safe

The glibc version of getdtablesize() calls getrlimit(2) and returns the current RLIMIT_NOFILE limit, or OPEN_MAX when that fails.

Portable applications should employ sysconf(_SC_OPEN_MAX) instead of this call.

None.

SVr4, 4.4BSD (first appeared in 4.2BSD).

close(2), dup(2), getrlimit(2), open(2)

2023-10-31 Linux man-pages 6.7