ulimit -a : nofiles ?

Hi folk,

I have a question..

$ ulimit -a
time(seconds) unlimited
file(blocks) unlimited
data(kbytes) 131072
stack(kbytes) 32768
memory(kbytes) unlimited
coredump(blocks) 2097151
nofiles(descriptors) 5000

What is the significance of nofiles(descriptors) ?

Appreciate your help.

Thanks
-Varun:b:

Number of file descriptors you can have open at one time.

Thanks for the reply.
Would you be able to describe it a little bit more.

I appreciate that.
Thanks
-Varun:b: