.\" Copyright 1994-1995, Daniel Quinlan <Daniel.Quinlan@linux.org>
.\" Copyright 2002-2017, Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
.\" Copyright, Andries E. Brouwer <aeb@cwi.nl>
.\" Copyright, the authors of the Linux man-pages project
.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
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.TH proc_sys_fs_inotify 5 2026-09-11 "Linux man-pages 6.20"
.SH NAME
/proc/sys/fs/inotify/ \- kernel variables related to inotify
.SH SYNOPSIS
.I /proc/sys/fs/inotify/
.SH DESCRIPTION
This directory contains files
that can be used to limit the amount of kernel memory consumed by the
.BR inotify (7)
interface.
.TP
.I /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_queued_events
The value in this file is used when an application calls
.BR inotify_init (2)
to set an upper limit on the number of events that can be
queued to the corresponding inotify instance.
Events in excess of this limit are dropped, but an
.B IN_Q_OVERFLOW
event is always generated.
.TP
.I /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances
This specifies an upper limit on the number of inotify instances
that can be created per real user ID.
.TP
.I /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches
This specifies an upper limit on the number of watches
that can be created per real user ID.
.SH HISTORY
Linux 2.6.13.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR proc_sys_fs (5),
.BR inotify (7)