C:\tmp>perl -e "open ++$fh, '>', $fh or die qq'$fh $!\n' for 1..$ARGV[0]" 512 510 [root@devel3 tmp]# perl -e 'open ++$fh, ">", $fh or die "$fh $!\n" for 1..$ARGV[0]' 1024 1022 Too many open files