Preßy, an open file is, well, a file that is open. Most of them result from the successful execution of an open() system call. A process, on the other hand, is normally created by the successful execution of a fork() system call. You don't want to get the two mixed up.
blp001, now I have access to my copy of
SOLARIS Internals Core Kernel Architecture by Mauro & McDougall. On page 476, I read
Quote:
Solaris allocates file structures for opened files as needed, growing the open file count dynamically to meet the requirements of the system load. Therefore, the maximum number of files that can be opened systemwide at any time is limited by available kernel address space, and nothing more.
So it's virtual rather than physical memory.