OS X Sierra: Increase maxfilesperproc - macos

Question

I need to increase the number of allowed open files per process on OS X Sierra.
Currently, when I run
ulimit -n
The response is 2048.
None of the following techniques suggested on StackOverflow and other sites are working for me:
Creating Launch Daemons
Running sudo sysctl -w kern.maxfilesperproc=10240
Adding the following lines to /etc/sysctl.conf
kern.maxfiles=20480
kern.maxfilesperproc=10240
Running ulimit -n 10240. Note that when I run ulimit -n 512 I am able to successfully decrease the allowed limit but I can't seem to increase it.
My Launch Daemon for maxfiles is below. The one for maxproc is similar.
localhost:LaunchDaemons jay$ ls -latr limit*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 540 Nov 8 11:10 limit.maxfiles.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 531 Nov 8 11:19 limit.maxproc.plist
localhost:LaunchDaemons jay$ cat 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>
Has anyone successfully increased the number of allowed open files per process on Sierra?

Answer 1

I think you want this:
# Check current limit
ulimit -n
256
# Raise limit
ulimit -S -n 4096
# Check again
ulimit -n
4096

Answer 2

(not enough rep to comment) Yes, I was able to increase the open files limit after a lot of headaches and the creating daemons solution link. It finally stuck by setting the permissions correctly (it should be root:wheel) and rebooting.
This is the response on the machine's from ulimit -a:
core file size (blocks, -c) 0
data seg size (kbytes, -d) unlimited
file size (blocks, -f) unlimited
max locked memory (kbytes, -l) unlimited
max memory size (kbytes, -m) unlimited
open files (-n) 64000
pipe size (512 bytes, -p) 1
stack size (kbytes, -s) 8192
cpu time (seconds, -t) unlimited
max user processes (-u) 2048
virtual memory (kbytes, -v) unlimited
Note that I also used the same link to increase the max user processes. Increasing the open files limit stuck with setting the permissions on limit.maxfiles.plist and loading the file with sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxfiles.plist. But the changes to max user process (limit.maxproc.plist) did not work and required rebooting.
It's worth mentioning that while I was finally able to increase these limits, increasing them has not solved my issue.
UPDATE
I tried to set the open files limit on another machine running Sierra and encountered the same problems that the OP is having, specifically:
running ulimit -S -n 10241 encounters the error: ulimit: open files: cannot modify limit: Invalid argument from Terminal
I was able to lower the open files limit and raise it again, but not break the 10240 barrier without encountering the 'Invalid argument' error
I followed the instructions in this answer Open files limit does not work as before in OSX Yosemite because it provides a sample of what should be in the limit.maxfiles.plist file. The soft limit is set at 64000 and the hard limit at 524288.
sudo touch limit.maxfiles.plist to create the file with the correct permissions (root:wheel).
With a text editor, I copied the example provided (in the answer above).
Then launchctl limit maxfiles reported maxfiles 64000 524288 so everything is good! NO! ulimit -n still came back as 10240
Then sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxfiles.plist and launchctl limit maxfiles and ulimit -n and the result was the same as in step 3.
After restarting the computer, launchctl limit maxfiles and ulimit -n both return the new soft limit of 64000.
The open files limit can be lowered and raised, but not raised above the new soft limit of 64000. Raising the open files limit above 64000 requires editing the .plist file and restarting again.
ulimit and launchctl need to agree, it seems, and that only happens after restarting. There is a little more context about the two in Difference between ulimit, launchctl, sysctl?, basically:
ulimit is for the shell
sysctl is for the OS
launchctl is for MacOS and older MacOS (nee OS X) gets, the less it respects sysctl or treats its settings as temporary.