Unable to run app due to "too many open files"

[robertgdev]

What were you trying to do?

Trying to run the default install of NativePHP.

What happened?

I installed NativePHP into a new Laravel app and followed the instructions to build the app.

When I try to run the app, I get the following:

Unzipping PHP binary from /home/rng/work/NativePhp/vendor/nativephp/php-bin/bin/linux/x64/php-8.4.zip to /home/rng/work/NativePhp/vendor/nativephp/desktop/resources/build/php
Copied PHP binary to  /home/rng/work/NativePhp/vendor/nativephp/desktop/resources/build/php/php
renderer and preload config is missing
vite v7.1.6 building SSR bundle for development...

watching for file changes...

build started...
✓ 37 modules transformed.
node:internal/fs/watchers:254
    const error = new UVException({
                  ^

Error: EMFILE: too many open files, watch '/home/rng/work/NativePhp/app/Providers/NativeAppServiceProvider.php'
    at FSWatcher.<computed> (node:internal/fs/watchers:254:19)
    at Object.watch (node:fs:2549:36)
    at createFsWatchInstance (file:///home/rng/work/NativePhp/vendor/nativephp/desktop/resources/electron/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/watch.js:6957:16)
    at setFsWatchListener (file:///home/rng/work/NativePhp/vendor/nativephp/desktop/resources/electron/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/watch.js:7004:16)
    at NodeFsHandler._watchWithNodeFs (file:///home/rng/work/NativePhp/vendor/nativephp/desktop/resources/electron/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/watch.js:7159:15)
    at NodeFsHandler._handleFile (file:///home/rng/work/NativePhp/vendor/nativephp/desktop/resources/electron/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/watch.js:7223:24)
    at NodeFsHandler._addToNodeFs (file:///home/rng/work/NativePhp/vendor/nativephp/desktop/resources/electron/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/watch.js:7465:22)
    at async file:///home/rng/work/NativePhp/vendor/nativephp/desktop/resources/electron/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/watch.js:8477:22
    at async Promise.all (index 0)
Emitted 'error' event on FSWatcher instance at:
    at FSWatcher._handleError (file:///home/rng/work/NativePhp/vendor/nativephp/desktop/resources/electron/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/watch.js:8673:11)
    at NodeFsHandler._addToNodeFs (file:///home/rng/work/NativePhp/vendor/nativephp/desktop/resources/electron/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/watch.js:7473:19)
    at async file:///home/rng/work/NativePhp/vendor/nativephp/desktop/resources/electron/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/watch.js:8477:22
    at async Promise.all (index 0) {
  errno: -24,
  syscall: 'watch',
  code: 'EMFILE',
  path: '/home/rng/work/NativePhp/app/Providers/NativeAppServiceProvider.php',
  filename: '/home/rng/work/NativePhp/app/Providers/NativeAppServiceProvider.php'
}

I should note that I have generously increased my system limits to try to work around this but the issue persists:

~/work/NativePhp$ ulimit -n
65536
~/work/NativePhp$ cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches
4097152

For reference, here is my composer.json require section:

    "require": {
        "php": "^8.2",
        "inertiajs/inertia-laravel": "^2.0",
        "laravel/framework": "^12.0",
        "laravel/tinker": "^2.10.1",
        "laravel/wayfinder": "^0.1.11",
        "nativephp/desktop": "^2.0"
    },
    "require-dev": {
        "fakerphp/faker": "^1.23",
        "laravel/pail": "^1.2.2",
        "laravel/pint": "^1.24",
        "laravel/sail": "^1.41",
        "mockery/mockery": "^1.6",
        "nunomaduro/collision": "^8.6",
        "pestphp/pest": "^4.1",
        "pestphp/pest-plugin-laravel": "^4.0"
    },

but the issue persists. Even if we're watching /vendor and /node_modules (I don't think we should, maybe they can be excluded), I think this error is a sign of something weird going on.

How to reproduce the bug

See above.

Debug Output

{
"Environment": {
"PHP": {
"Version": "8.4.5",
"Path": "/usr/bin/php8.4"
},
"Laravel": {
"Version": "12.35.1",
"ConfigCached": false,
"RoutesCached": false,
"DebugEnabled": true
},
"Node": {
"Version": "v22.21.0",
"Path": "/usr/bin/node"
},
"NPM": {
"Version": "10.9.4",
"Path": "/usr/bin/npm"
},
"OperatingSystem": "Linux"
},
"NativePHP": {
"Versions": {
"nativephp/desktop": "2.0.1.0",
"nativephp/php-bin": "1.1.1.0"
},
"Configuration": {
"Provider": "App\Providers\NativeAppServiceProvider",
"BuildHooks": {
"Pre": [],
"Post": []
},
"NotarizationEnabled": false,
"AzureTrustedSigningEnabled": false,
"CustomPHPBinary": false
}
}
}

Which operating systems have you seen this occur on?

KUbuntu 25.04

Notes

Please note that I'm not sure that this is a bug or some kind of weird setup issue. Feel free to reclassify.

[gwleuverink]

Hi @rgasch. Thanks for your detailed report.

Going by the errors it seems like this might be related to this line here:

desktop/resources/electron/electron.vite.config.mjs

Line 12 in d5b6179

this.addWatchFile(join(process.env.APP_PATH, 'app', 'Providers', 'NativeAppServiceProvider.php'));

It instructs vite to watch your service provider & reload when anything changes. Can you confirm that's the issue by removing that line?

[robertgdev]

Yes, when commenting out this line, the system starts.

I'll leave this issue open so you can decide if it warrants a patch from your side; please feel free to close it when you think it's appropriate.

Thank you for your help!

[gwleuverink]

Dubious. What's passed to that function is just a path to a single file. But the error suggests it's hitting the file open limit, which I agree is weird.

It's using the electron-vite dev --watch command under the hood while running native:run. It almost seems like vite is using a different watching strategy for the entire project altogether when passing a single outside file to watch.

I wonder what files are actually being watched in both scenarios (with the offending line present/commented out)

Could you run strace -e inotify_add_watch -p $(pgrep -f vite)

[robertgdev]

If I do

artisan native:run

and then

strace -e inotify_add_watch -p $(pgrep -f vite)

I get an error:

> strace -e inotify_add_watch -p $(pgrep -f vite)
strace: Cannot find executable '3816223'

Am I doing this right?

[gwleuverink]

Hmm perhaps it needs to be electron-vite instead? I’m not sure, I’m not on Linux so can’t verify

[robertgdev]

I'm a little doubtful the command you gave is correct. I did the following:

ps aux|grep vite
rng      4065286  0.0  0.0   2892  1756 pts/7    S+   18:40   0:00 sh -c cross-env node php.js && electron-vite dev --watch
rng      4065305  2.8  0.1 23386216 112036 pts/7 Sl+  18:40   0:00 node /home/rng/work/NativePhp/vendor/nativephp/desktop/resources/electron/node_modules/.bin/electron-vite dev --watch

Using your script, I get an error. But if I do

sudo strace -e inotify_add_watch -p 4065286

it works (in the sense that it attaches to the process). However, these commands (for both process IDs) generate no output.

If I run

 sudo strace -p 4065305

I get this output about once a second:

epoll_pwait(15, [{events=EPOLLIN, data=0x1a}], 1024, -1, NULL, 8) = 1
read(26, "\35\0\0\0\220\2\0\0\6\1\0\0\0\7\0\0\0command\3\4\0\0\0pin"..., 65536) = 33
write(24, "\t\0\0\0\221\2\0\0\6\0\0\0\0", 13) = 13
epoll_pwait(15, [], 1024, 0, NULL, 8)   = 0

Please advise how to proceed c.q. better diagnose this. Thank you.