Maximum ptys

Rob B spam@robsnotebook.com
Sat Dec 18 15:24:00 GMT 2010


Hi:

I seem to be hitting my maximum pty limit after running my cygwin
machine for about a week.  I open rxvt terminals and have an openssh
server.  rxvt on the machine and connections via ssh work fine after
reboot.  After about 1 week goes by I get messages about failure to
allocate a pty.

Once this happens, I can't open an rxvt at the machine anymore (get
error message: can't open pseudo-tty), or ssh in (get error message:
PTY allocation request failed on channel 0).

If I shut down an existing rxvt window on my machine, I can create one
more rxvt (or connect via ssh one more time), but then I hit the limit
again (get the failure messages) when I try to open another one.  I
don't have many windows open, but I think ptys may not be getting
freed when ssh connections shut down in a not so nice way.

In cygwin, how do I determine how many ptys are in use?
How do I determine which processes are using a pty?

I found the following link with Google, but the procedure does not
work for cygwin:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/howto-linux-increase-pty-session.html

I run an openssh server, and sometimes the clients may shut down in a
not so nice way (due to lid closing on laptop client).  Maybe the ptys
are not getting freed when this happens?

I've tried searching this mailing list and could not find any emails
about this issue.  If they do exist, please send me the links with the
answers.

I'm using Windows 7, and uname -a shows:

CYGWIN_NT-6.1-WOW64 rob-server 1.7.6(0.230/5/3) 2010-08-16 16:06 i686 Cygwin

Please help.

Thanks,
Rob B

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