Bash script scenarios to handle large log files with 'tail -f' due to file descriptor limits
I'm refactoring my project and I'm trying to configure I'm running a Bash script on Ubuntu 20.04 that uses `tail -f` to monitor a large log file generated by a web server. However, when the log file grows beyond a certain size, I start seeing the behavior `tail: want to open 'logfile.log': Too many open files`. I suspect this is related to file descriptor limits, but I'm not sure how to address it. To confirm, I checked my current limits with `ulimit -n`, and it shows `1024`, which feels low given the nature of the application. I've tried increasing the limit temporarily by running `ulimit -n 4096` in the terminal before executing the script, but it seems to revert back when the script runs as a service. Here’s a snippet of my script: ```bash #!/bin/bash # Increase file descriptor limit ulimit -n 4096 # Follow the log file /usr/bin/tail -f /path/to/logfile.log ``` I also attempted to set the `LimitNOFILE` directive in the systemd service file: ```ini [Service] ExecStart=/path/to/your/script.sh LimitNOFILE=4096 ``` After making this change, I reloaded the systemd configuration with `systemctl daemon-reload` and restarted the service. However, the script still fails with the same behavior when the log file size increases significantly. Is there a more effective way to handle file descriptor limits for a script that needs to manage large log files, especially when executed as a service? Any insights on best practices for monitoring log files without hitting these limits would be greatly appreciated. Any examples would be super helpful. I'm using Bash latest in this project. Thanks in advance!