Really? multiplexing file descriptors IS the specific use case of select. It would be more like "My bike is broken, when I try to ride more than 12 blocks th

Really? multiplexing file descriptors IS the specific use case of select. It would be more like "My bike is broken, when I try to ride more than 12 blocks the wheels fall off". Also, it's not even that select can't handle more than 1024 fds, it's that it can't handle a file descriptor above 1024 at all, so if your app opens a bunch of data files before accepting connection, the limit could be as low as 10 concurrent connections before select fails.