Inotify Instances Limit (Linux)
For an intelligent IDE, it is essential to be in the know about any external changes in files it working with - e.g. changes made by VCS, or build tools, or code generators, etc. For that reason, the IntelliJ platform spins a background process to monitor such changes. The method it uses is platform-specific, and on Linux, it is the Inotify facility.
Before operating, inotify requires an "instance" to be initialized. While the default per-user limit of instances used to be high enough, a growing number of programs that also use inotify may lead to instance shortage - in which case file watcher will be unable to start.
If this is the case, the limit may be temporarily increased by the following command:
sudo sh -c "echo 256 > /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances"
Don't forget to restart the IDE afterward.
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This page only documents how to *temporarily* raise the limit. Here is an article for a persistent solution:
https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000020048
For debian or ubuntu based systems, and probably all the others to:
1) See all current values :
sudo sysctl -a | grep inotify
2) Modify the values in a way that persists after a reboot:
Edit the file /etc/sysctl.conf and add or update these lines:
fs.inotify.max_user_instances=256
fs.inotify.max_user_watches=65536
Then either reboot or apply the values with this command:
sudo sysctl --system