Error opening dump file - 'Too many open files' about sharppcap

[abdullah2993]

You are using Windows or Linux?

[jwilczek]

Windows.

[abdullah2993]

@jwilczek this is not shappcap problem its a windows one. These limits are imposed by the OS. Look here. A possible workaround without tinkering with the OS is to Open/Close with every write or come up with a method to limit the number of simultaneously opened files(post the code/sample pcap).

Kindly close this issue if you think this was the problem
/cc @chmorgan

[jwilczek]

I apologize for the slow reply. I'm not sure if I agree that this is can be attributed to an OS issue. First, I experience the error around just 508 open files. The link you pointed me to suggested that 16k was possible. Second, I was able to work around the issue by writing my own PCAP writer. Using System.File.IO.Open(), I was able to have 1000s of simultaneously open files with no issues.

Based on some of the preliminary research I conducted, I was of the opinion that this could be an issue with the underlying winpcap library, which is written in c/c++ (I believe). From my preliminary research, I believe I read that a compile-time flag/switch could be used in c/c++ to increase the number of open files.

Either way, I would disagree that this is a C# limitation.

Sincerely,

Josh

[abdullah2993]

@jwilczek I may have misread the situation you may be right but IMO this is not a limitation of SharpPcap, could be a wincap one.