Hi Running multiple "configure" commands via birdc, while there is an error in configuration file, creates multiple file descriptors. Scenario CentOS 6.4 2.6.32-358.el6.x86_64 bird 1.4.0 birdc.conf main configuration file comp.conf included in bird.conf there a loop of "configure" and several "show" commands runs in a background to ease configuration debugging after a while following error appears /etc/bird/bird.conf, line 96: Unable to open included file /etc/bird/comp.conf: Too many open files lsof provides thousands of the following bird 20566 root 657r REG 253,0 617 25314 /etc/bird/comp.conf~ (deleted) bird 20566 root 658r REG 253,0 617 25314 /etc/bird/comp.conf~ (deleted) bird 20566 root 659r REG 253,0 617 25314 /etc/bird/comp.conf~ (deleted) bird 20566 root 660r REG 253,0 617 25314 /etc/bird/comp.conf~ (deleted) bird 20566 root 661r REG 253,0 617 25314 /etc/bird/comp.conf~ (deleted) bird 20566 root 662r REG 253,0 643 25313 /etc/bird/comp.conf~ (deleted) bird 20566 root 663r REG 253,0 643 25313 /etc/bird/comp.conf~ (deleted) bird 20566 root 664r REG 253,0 643 25313 /etc/bird/comp.conf~ (deleted) bird 20566 root 665r REG 253,0 695 25034 /etc/bird/comp.conf bird 20566 root 666r REG 253,0 695 25034 /etc/bird/comp.conf bird 20566 root 667r REG 253,0 695 25034 /etc/bird/comp.conf bird 20566 root 668r REG 253,0 695 25034 /etc/bird/comp.conf bird 20566 root 669r REG 253,0 695 25034 /etc/bird/comp.conf bird 20566 root 670r REG 253,0 695 25034 /etc/bird/comp.conf Only solution found is to restart the bird proccess