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From: "Günther Noack" <gnoack3000@gmail.com>
To: Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>
Cc: linux-man@vger.kernel.org, "Günther Noack" <gnoack3000@gmail.com>,
	"Michael Kerrisk" <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>,
	"Willy Tarreau" <w@1wt.eu>,
	"Kuniyuki Iwashima" <kuniyu@google.com>
Subject: [PATCH 1/7] man/man7/unix.7: ERRORS: ETOOMANYREFS: Fix the conditions
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2026 23:22:50 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261021212256.27961-2-gnoack3000@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20261021212256.27961-1-gnoack3000@gmail.com>

The ETOOMANYREFS error is detected in too_many_unix_fds() in
net/unix/af_unix.c when the user's (not the processes') in-flight FDs
exceed RLIMIT_NOFILE, and the process has neither CAP_SYS_RESOURCE nor
CAP_SYS_ADMIN.  The error is raised when all of the following
(simplified) conditions are true:

* user->unix_inflight > task_rlimit(p, RLIMIT_NOFILE)
* !capable(CAP_SYS_RESOURCE)
* !capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN)

The check was introduced in linux.git 712f4aad406b (2016-01-11; "unix:
properly account for FDs passed over unix sockets").

Fixes: dc4eea68b565 (2016-12-17; "unix.7: Document ETOOMANYREFS for SCM_RIGHTS send exceeding RLIMIT_NOFILE limit")
Cc: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
Cc: Willy Tarreau <w@1wt.eu>
Cc: Kuniyuki Iwashima <kuniyu@google.com>
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Günther Noack <gnoack3000@gmail.com>
---

Notes:
    Double checked in code -- the condition under which this error is
    returned was not fully spelled out.

 man/man7/unix.7 | 8 ++++++--
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/man/man7/unix.7 b/man/man7/unix.7
index 79198445c581..0d2ea8bda2ae 100644
--- a/man/man7/unix.7
+++ b/man/man7/unix.7
@@ -785,10 +785,14 @@ when sending a file descriptor as ancillary data over
 a UNIX domain socket (see the description of
 .BR SCM_RIGHTS ,
 above).
-It occurs if the number of "in-flight" file descriptors exceeds the
+It occurs if the number of "in-flight" file descriptors
+sent by processes of the caller's real user ID
+exceeds the caller's
 .B RLIMIT_NOFILE
-resource limit and the caller does not have the
+resource limit and the caller has neither the
 .B CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
+nor the
+.B CAP_SYS_ADMIN
 capability.
 An in-flight file descriptor is one that has been sent using
 .BR sendmsg (2)
-- 
2.56.0


  reply	other threads:[~2026-10-21 21:23 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 35+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-10-21 21:22 [PATCH 0/7] unix.7: Socket Options and SCM_* fixes Günther Noack
2026-10-21 21:22 ` Günther Noack [this message]
2026-10-22 21:14   ` [PATCH 1/7] man/man7/unix.7: ERRORS: ETOOMANYREFS: Fix the conditions Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-23 16:50     ` Günther Noack
2026-10-24  4:45   ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-21 21:22 ` [PATCH 2/7] man/man7/unix.7: Multiple same-typed SCM_* messages may be sent in one message Günther Noack
2026-10-22 21:28   ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-23 17:09     ` Günther Noack
2026-10-21 21:22 ` [PATCH 3/7] man/man7/unix.7: Autobind: Clarify when it happens, and mention SO_PASSPIDFD Günther Noack
2026-10-24  4:57   ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-26 21:55     ` Günther Noack
2026-10-27  5:04       ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-21 21:22 ` [PATCH 4/7] man/man7/unix.7: SCM_SECURITY: Generalize to other LSMs, not just SELinux Günther Noack
2026-10-23  9:57   ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-23 17:57     ` Günther Noack
2026-10-23 18:13       ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-26 22:41         ` Günther Noack
2026-10-27  8:54           ` Günther Noack
2026-10-27 21:46             ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-27 22:30               ` Günther Noack
2026-10-27 22:59                 ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-28  6:19                   ` Günther Noack
2026-10-28 12:45                     ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-27 16:32           ` Casey Schaufler
2026-10-27 21:52             ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-21 21:22 ` [PATCH 5/7] man/man7/unix.7: SO_PASSSEC: wfix Günther Noack
2026-10-24  5:02   ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-24  8:36     ` Alejandro Colomar
2026-10-26 22:42       ` Günther Noack
2026-10-27  5:05         ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-21 21:22 ` [PATCH 6/7] man/man7/unix.7: Document SO_PASSPIDFD, SO_PEERPIDFD, and SCM_PIDFD Günther Noack
2026-10-24  5:22   ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-26 23:02     ` Günther Noack
2026-10-27  5:06       ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
2026-10-21 21:22 ` [PATCH 7/7] man/man7/unix.7: Document SO_PASSRIGHTS Günther Noack

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