Skip to content

Latest Ubuntu requires editing sysctl.d #8974

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Merged
merged 1 commit into from
Oct 15, 2025
Merged

Latest Ubuntu requires editing sysctl.d #8974

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
1 commit
Select commit
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions docs/setup/linux.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -279,7 +279,7 @@ The current limit can be viewed by running:
cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches
```

The limit can be increased to its maximum by editing `/etc/sysctl.conf` (except on Arch Linux, read below) and adding this line to the end of the file:
The limit can be increased to its maximum by editing `/etc/sysctl.conf` (except on Arch Linux and Ubutun 24.10 and later, read below) and adding this line to the end of the file:

```bash
fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288
Expand All @@ -289,7 +289,7 @@ The new value can then be loaded in by running `sudo sysctl -p`.

While 524,288 is the maximum number of files that can be watched, if you're in an environment that is particularly memory-constrained, you might want to lower the number. Each file watch [takes up 1,080 bytes](https://stackoverflow.com/a/7091897/1156119), so assuming that all 524,288 watches are consumed, that results in an upper bound of around 540 MiB.

[Arch](https://www.archlinux.org/)-based distros (including Manjaro) require you to change a different file; follow [these steps](https://gist.github.com/tbjgolden/c53ca37f3bc2fab8c930183310918c8c) instead.
[Arch](https://www.archlinux.org/)-based distros (including Manjaro) and Ubuntu-based distros starting with 24.10 require you to change a different file; follow [these steps](https://gist.github.com/tbjgolden/c53ca37f3bc2fab8c930183310918c8c) instead.

Another option is to exclude specific workspace directories from the VS Code file watcher with the `setting(files.watcherExclude)` [setting](/docs/configure/settings.md). The default for `setting(files.watcherExclude)` excludes `node_modules` and some folders under `.git`, but you can add other directories that you don't want VS Code to track.

Expand Down