Credit to @passwd for figuring this out

We were able to get it to work by increasing the max file limit and moving to watchman v4.6.0

here are the steps we followed:

1. increase max file limt

# check open file limit
sysctl kern.maxfiles

# edit sysctl
sudo vim /etc/sysctl.conf

# add these two lines
kern.maxfiles=10485760
kern.maxfilesperproc=1048576

# reboot
sudo reboot

# check new file limit
sysctl kern.maxfiles

2. upgrade to watchman 4.6

# clone repo
git clone https://github.com/facebook/watchman.git

# change to master branch
git checkout -b v4.6.0 v4.6.0

# run compiler
./autogen.sh
./configure --enable-lenient --without-pcre --with-python
make
sudo make install

# check watchman version
watchman -v

# result should be 4.6.0

FINALLY!!!

I ran the watchman watch-list command, then the error suggested me to run chmod 0700 /usr/local/var/run/watchman/<USER>-state as @oscart said, then it worked!!

I was checking watchman issues and found out this one: https://github.com/facebook/watchman/issues/358

When running watchman watch-list I got some permissions error.

chmod 0700 /usr/local/var/run/watchman/<USER>-state worked for me.

Isn’t working for me 👎

Versions:

$node --version
v6.6.0

$watchman --version
4.7.0

$sysctl kern.maxfiles
kern.maxfiles: 10485760

$sysctl kern.maxfilesperproc
kern.maxfilesperproc: 1048576

Log:

2016-09-19 15:25 node[989] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2016-09-19 15:25 node[989] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2016-09-19 15:25 node[989] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
 ERROR  Error watching file for changes: EMFILE
{"code":"EMFILE","errno":"EMFILE","syscall":"Error watching file for changes:","filename":null}
Error: Error watching file for changes: EMFILE
    at exports._errnoException (util.js:1036:11)
    at FSEvent.FSWatcher._handle.onchange (fs.js:1406:11)

unfortunately it does not work for me

macOS 10.12 (16A319)

$ node --version
-> v6.5.0
$ watchman --version
-> 4.6.0
$ sysctl kern.maxfiles
-> 10485760
$ sysctl kern.maxfilesperproc
-> 1048576

React packager ready.

2016-09-13 17:10 node[8707] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2016-09-13 17:10 node[8707] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2016-09-13 17:10 node[8707] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2016-09-13 17:10 node[8707] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2016-09-13 17:10 node[8707] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2016-09-13 17:10 node[8707] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2016-09-13 17:10 node[8707] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2016-09-13 17:10 node[8707] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
 ERROR  Error watching file for changes: EMFILE
{"code":"EMFILE","errno":"EMFILE","syscall":"Error watching file for changes:","filename":null}
Error: Error watching file for changes: EMFILE
    at exports._errnoException (util.js:1026:11)
    at FSEvent.FSWatcher._handle.onchange (fs.js:1406:11)

Just got this as well, also on sierra

Upgrading watchman worked, brew didn’t cooperate but heh…

$ git clone https://github.com/facebook/watchman.git
$ cd watchman
$ git checkout v4.7.0  # the latest stable release
$ ./autogen.sh
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

Note that this is also what happens if you don’t have Watchman installed at all.

No luck 😦

@jalmaas value updates only after reboot. Worked for me on GM.

But indeed, just updating to watchman 4.6.0+ seems to be enough.

React Native works fine with relatively up-to-date software. These are the settings that are working for me:

$ node --version
v6.5.0
$ watchman --version
4.6.0
$ sysctl kern.maxfiles
kern.maxfiles: 16384
$ sysctl kern.maxfilesperproc
kern.maxfilesperproc: 10240

I followed most of the steps above including upgrading watchman, and increasing the max file limit, but what solved it for me was verifying permissions by running watchman watch-list and then following the directions it provided. Thanks @oscart and @hghinaglia!

I have the following configurations:

OSX: Sierra XCode: 8.1 NodeJS: 5.1.0 Watchman: 4.6.0 kern.maxfiles: 10485760

I used to following steps to fix the issue.

1. Run watchman watch-list
2. Received the following error:

2016-10-30T18:24:39,064: [3239527360] the permissions on /usr/local/var/run/watchman/userman-state allow others to write to it. Verify that you own the contents and then fix its permissions by running chmod 0700 /usr/local/var/run/watchman/userman-state

1. Followed the instruction in the error prompt above and ran

chmod 0700 /usr/local/var/run/watchman/userman-state

This fixed it. To summarize, it seems to have been a permissions problem on a Watchman directory.

System doesn’t report the updated value when i run sysctl kern.maxfiles (reports 300k) but upgraded to watchman 4.7.0 with brew install watchman and it seems to work