[Arch Linux] [Manjaro] How to avoid "Visual Studio Code is unable to watch for file changes in this large workspace" (error ENOSPC)

inotify-instructions.md

To avoid this error, we need to increase the inotify watcher limit.

The way to do this is different on Arch based distributions than other Linux distributions.

Instructions for Arch Linux/Manjaro

Check for an already existing inotify config file (recent versions of Manjaro include one)

ls /etc/sysctl.d/*-max_user_watches.conf

a) If no output

echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/40-max_user_watches.conf && sudo sysctl --system

b) If the command outputs a file

(in the rare case where it outputs multiple files, continue using the last one in the list)

# replace `/etc/sysctl.d/50-max_user_watches.conf` with the file returned from the previous `ls` command
echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/50-max_user_watches.conf && sudo sysctl --system

Check it's working

cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches

Expected output: 524288

Credits

• inotify og dev
• explanation and troubleshooting
• manjaro fix original

How to make this change when on linux not running as root user.
I'm connecting to remote development environment using Remote-SSH extension

How to make this change when on linux not running as root user. I'm connecting to remote development environment using Remote-SSH extension

Pretty sure you need privileged access, kernel changes generally require root, unless you have a really permissive system.

Works

It works perfect