Too many open files

[bserem]

When trying to add Cypress to a project, after running cypress-open I am getting the following issue more and more lately:

After clicking try again it attempts to create cypress.config.js and cypress folder but it fails with the following error in the terminal (almost identical):

EMFILE: too many open files, watch '/e2e'
Error: EMFILE: too many open files, watch '/e2e'
    at FSWatcher.<anonymous> (node:internal/fs/watchers:247:19)
    at Object.watch (node:fs:2418:34)
    at J (<embedded>:2209:11806)
    at $ (<embedded>:2209:12079)
    at s.exports._watchWithNodeFs (<embedded>:2209:14049)
    at s.exports._handleDir (<embedded>:2209:17414)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async s.exports._addToNodeFs (<embedded>:2209:18361)
    at async <embedded>:2209:35319
    at async Promise.all (index 0)
Failed to run cypress-open : exit status 1

Stopping/starting docker doesn't solve the issue.

Tried downgrading to Cypress v13.15.2, no luck.

Is this related to cypress or to ddev? (or something else)

[rfay]

You don't say what OS or Docker provider you're on. I think you need to increase the max_user_watches. On linux:

sudo sysctl -w fs.inotify.max_user_watches=1024

[rfay]

Actually, it's probably the open filies, not the max_user_watches. See

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8965606/node-and-error-emfile-too-many-open-files

In general, these are settings on the host side, but may involve the Docker provider.

[tyler36]

I have not seen that error before.
My stack is:

• Windows 10 Docker Desktop
• WSL (Ubuntu 24.04) DDEV

[rfay]

@bserem your original screenshot showed it doing watching on your .git directory. Whatever you're doing there... don't have it watch the .git directory.

[bserem]

@rfay I do not have a .git directory in there, matter of fact, the /e2e folder is not yet created when this error appears.
How would I control Cypress to not look somewhere?

I am using:
Linux, Kernel: 6.11.0
Docker version 27.3.1, build ce12230

My open files limit is 1024

[rfay]

Try raising the open files limit on host and see what happens