diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index cacc3f81b3827e..ca71afa6626dc4 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -125,7 +125,9 @@ script:
     - /tmp/julia/bin/julia --precompiled=no -e 'true' &&
         /tmp/julia/bin/julia-debug --precompiled=no -e 'true'
     - /tmp/julia/bin/julia -e 'versioninfo()'
-    - export JULIA_CPU_CORES=2 && export JULIA_TEST_MAXRSS_MB=600 && cd /tmp/julia/share/julia/test &&
+    - export JULIA_CPU_CORES=2 && export JULIA_TEST_MAXRSS_MB=600 &&
+        ulimit -n 128 &&
+        cd /tmp/julia/share/julia/test &&
         /tmp/julia/bin/julia --check-bounds=yes runtests.jl $TESTSTORUN &&
         /tmp/julia/bin/julia --check-bounds=yes runtests.jl libgit2-online pkg
     - cd `dirname $TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR` && mv julia2 julia &&
diff --git a/test/Makefile b/test/Makefile
index 66156a74c7a617..12569ea9602678 100644
--- a/test/Makefile
+++ b/test/Makefile
@@ -8,8 +8,17 @@ TESTS = all linalg sparse unicode strings dates $(filter-out TestHelpers runtest
 
 default: all
 
+# set hard and soft limits for spawn fd-exhaustion test
+ifeq ($(OS),WINNT)
+ULIMIT_TEST=
+else
+ULIMIT_TEST=ulimit -n 128
+endif
+
 $(TESTS):
-	@cd $(SRCDIR) && $(call PRINT_JULIA, $(call spawn,$(JULIA_EXECUTABLE)) --check-bounds=yes --startup-file=no ./runtests.jl $@)
+	@cd $(SRCDIR) && \
+	$(ULIMIT_TEST) && \
+	$(call PRINT_JULIA, $(call spawn,$(JULIA_EXECUTABLE)) --check-bounds=yes --startup-file=no ./runtests.jl $@)
 
 perf:
 	@$(MAKE) -C $(SRCDIR)/perf all