Too many open files when importing data from schema (MySQL)

Question

I am trying to import a SQL file, that has about 5.5 GB of data, into one of my local schemas on my Macbook machine. I keep getting the following error in mysql which prevents the import from finishing:

errno: 24 - Too many open files)

I created a my.cnf file and placed it in the following directory /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.7.25/my.cnf. The my.cnf file has the following set

open_files_limit = 100000

however, when I run the following query I still have the open_files_limit set to 256:

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'open%';

I am not sure what the issue is.

Answer 1

it might by the value 100000 too big for this config

https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/server-system-variables.html#sysvar_open_files_limit

Answer 2

1. check if you conf file is used by mysql.

Location of my.cnf file on macOS

Determine which MySQL configuration file is being used

2. On Unix, the value of open_files_limit cannot be set greater than ulimit -n.