MongoDB requires more file descriptors than the default on MacOS. The following worked for MacOS-13:
sudo vi /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxfiles.plist
Add this to /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxfiles.plist
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>limit.maxfiles</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>launchctl</string>
<string>limit</string>
<string>maxfiles</string>
<string>64000</string>
<string>524288</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>ServiceIPC</key>
<false/>
</dict>
</plist>
This will make the file’s owner be root:wheel, as needed. You then invoke launchctl to load the new settings:
sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxfiles.plist
You can confirm your hard maxfiles limit, before and after, as you noted:
sysctl kern.maxfiles
And you can confirm your soft maxfiles limit, before and after, with:
launchctl limit maxfiles
Reboot.
If needed, you can replace the 64000 value above with a larger number (of per user files).