"Fatal error: EMFILE, open" when building osx distribution

[kiyanwang]

I'm using grunt-node-webkit-builder my config looks like this :

nodewebkit: {
      options: {
        version: "0.10.0",
        buildDir: './dist',
        // specifiy what to build
        platforms:['osx','win','linux32','linux64'],
        macIcns: './nw.icns',
        macZip: false
        ,win_ico: './nw.ico'
      },
      src: './_public/**/*'
    },

This worked fine whilst my _public folder (the node-webkit app ive written) did not contain a node_modules folder. However as soon as I include a node_modules folder I get this error:

Fatal error: EMFILE, open '/Users/nadeemshabir/Development/projects/desktop_apps/talis-uploader-desktop-app/_public/node_modules/request/node_modules/hawk/node_modules/hoek/package.json'.

It only errors for the OSX distribution, the others work fine.
I'm on Mavericks, running grunt-node-webkit-builder 0.2.1 which is using node-webkit-builder 0.1.1.

Also If I dont include the node_modules folder in the _public directory, then use the the grunt task to build the distribution it works, if I then manually copy the node_modules folder into /Contents/Resources/app.nw/ in the dist folder, and run the app the app works perfectly. So I have a work around.

Any thoughts on how I can prevent that error?

[adam-lynch]

You can try adding the following line to your ~/.bash_profile file:

ulimit -n 1024

[kiyanwang]

@adam-lynch that appears to have fixed it, many thanks!

[adam-lynch]

@kiyanwang no prob

[smiling-Jack]

I have the same problem if I build a osx app on Windows 7! what can I do ? ulimit under Windows ?

[adam-lynch]

@smiling-Jack, sure it's the same problem? Maybe it's that you're ending up with paths which are too long for Windows?

[smiling-Jack]

Yes i think so.
If i build for windows i have no problems.
If i build for osx i have the "Fatal error: EMFILE, open" error. (not every time on the same file)

My project has ca. 1280 files than i have remove many readme, test and liecens files and now i have 1113 files and no problems. But that's not a solution for the future.

I now its strange !

[adam-lynch]

Hmm @smiling-Jack, I've never heard of that before on Windows.

[smiling-Jack]

If I set the option:
macZip: true
I have no problems ?!?

[smiling-Jack]

I have found a solution ! :-)

I have change in the "NwBuilder.prototype.mergeAppFiles" the return to:

var x = Promise.all(copiedFiles)
setTimeout(function(){
return x;
},1000)

and it works for me.

[jimbuck]

@smiling-Jack Have you made a pull request for this change? I am also having this issue on Windows 8.

[jamesmortensen]

Is it possible to add the ulimit as an option in the Gruntfile? Just a thought that might make it easier on folks. Hope this helps!

[adam-lynch]

@jamesmortensen should that not be its own separate Grunt plugin? I'm more used to Gulp where making another simple plugin with a single purpose would be encouraged.

[jamesmortensen]

I guess it could be its own plugin, but it's so simple that if you know you need to type "ulimit" it's just easier to type it out by hand than to look for a plugin. The only problem my suggestion would solve is to help those who don't know what ulimit is, which -- as Node.js grows and hits its "eternal September" -- would be something that could matter in the future.

It's really not that big of a deal to type it at the terminal if it would go against the "keep it simple" and "single purpose" methodology to add it to grunt-node-webkit-builder. In other words, I think we all can live without it, at least those of us involved in the Node.js community today. Hope this helps clarify.

[jamesmortensen]

It might not be a bad idea to add that to the documentation; however... Hope this helps!

[adam-lynch]

Added to READMEs. FYI, it should be fixed in Node 0.12 nodejs/node-v0.x-archive@6820054

[NickStefan]

I'm getting this error on OSX, even after trying:

ulimit -n 1024

or even

ulimit -n 2048

What else can I try? @adam-lynch

[adam-lynch]

I played around with a solution to problems like these... not sure if it solves it completely though. If you want to try, it's on the graceful-ncp branch of node-webkit-builder. So npm install mllrsohn/node-webkit-builder#graceful-ncp. But this is the source repo, not the grunt one so you could test it without grunt or maybe you could try going into your node_modules/grunt-node-webkit-builder and running that npm command, then use it with grunt as normal.

[mudcube]

For others on mac who are still hitting this error on the latest version 1.0.0; try setting "macZip: true". For me this seemed to solve the issue.

[flocca]

Thanks @mudcube, setting macZip to true solves the issue.

So there are two different issue: one that can be solved using ulimit -n 1024 and this one @adam-lynch.