Fork() works & returns -1

[Peter Jeremy]

I am running SCO Xenix Release 2.2.1.  I recently noticed that under some
circumstances fork() would return -1 to both parent and child, along with
errno=24 (Too many open files).  Naturally, this was rather upsetting to
the processes concerned.  At the time, the process had about 5 open files.
According to my understanding of fork(), that error is impossible anyway.

In addition, the process names reported by PS would randomly change to
the names of other processes. (Like having ps report 2 or 3 "init"s running
simultaneously).

Other than these problems, the system seemed to work normally.  Examination
of the configuration variables didn't reveal anything overly wrong and the
system didn't complain at all.

I eventually gave up and started from fresh /usr/sys/conf/{master,xenixconf}
files.  This seems to have cured the problem.  Has anyone else had similar
experiences?
-- 
Peter Jeremy (VK2PJ)         peter%stca77 at stcns3.stc.oz
Alcatel-STC Australia        ...!munnari!stcns3.stc.oz!stca77!peter
41 Mandible St               peter%stca77 at stcns3.stc.oz@uunet.UU.NET
ALEXANDRIA  NSW  2015