> This can only be raised (above the hard limit) by a privileged
> process, so I would be out of luck there, as I could not convince
> my sysadmins to raise this further.

We all know that feeling :-)

> Meanwhile, I will just use my own module, so feel free to close
> this if you feel like it :)

OK, I'll close it then, since I don't see any satisfactory solution, and - until now - you've been the only user to get bitten.

Cheers.