open files in mysqld 5.1.53

Question

I am trying to understand the incredible use of filepointers in our mysql server (5.1.53). under normal condition the server reports 10k-15k open files pointer. I run a 'flush tables' every 2h to avoid problems, the number of users/connections is constant
It is an automatic system but a few human users, a happy mix of myisam and innodb tables running
with no problems on mysqld 5.0 . But now sometimes i am hit with an insane increase hitting the ceiling at 60k. I do not like the idea to increase the limit further because i do not understand why this is happening (I seems to happen at random times).

I am running out of idea what my cause the unexpected increase, any idea what to watch ?

Answer 1

harmless :-)

[root@localhost:~]$ lsof | grep mysqld | wc -l
471206

nobody but oracle knows why there are so much file handles and this is MySQL 5.5.32