(file-error "Creating pipe" "too many open files")

[Sam Steingold]

GNU Emacs 22.0.50.13 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2006-07-10 on quant8

 I now get this, all of a sudden:
 
Debugger entered--Lisp error: (file-error "Creating pipe" "too many open files")
  start-process("ispell" nil "aspell" "-a" "-m" "-d" "en" "--encoding=utf-8" 
"-p" "/home/sds/.ispell")
  apply(start-process "ispell" nil "aspell" "-a" "-m" ("-d" "en" 
"--encoding=utf-8" "-p" "/home/sds/.ispell"))

the only unusual thing is that gdb window has this:

...
Detaching after fork from child process 19412.
Detaching after fork from child process 19420.
Detaching after fork from child process 19444.
ALSA lib pcm_direct.c:1090:(snd_pcm_direct_open_secondary_client) unable to 
open hardware
Detaching after fork from child process 883.
...

(there are lot's of "Detaching" messages because every dired &c
generates it).

(length (process-list))
==> 7

there is nothing unusual there.

how do I get out of this predicament (short of restarting emacs)?
I mean, maybe I can do something under gdb to close some files?

I have ~180 buffers, most non-file.

-- 
Sam Steingold (http://www.podval.org/~sds) on Fedora Core release 5 (Bordeaux)
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