[Bug]: Too many open files (file descriptors running out)

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Bug description

We've had this mentioned in a few other issues, but I wanted to created one to focus on this specifically.

Over the last few months, my first run of a dev build in XCode usually crashes either due to an assertion error or null pointer dereference related to running out of file descriptors. If I re-run a couple times (without clearing cache) it usually catches up and then runs normally.

(The emojis plugin is where I often get the nil data pointer crash.)

Some LLM consultation looks like our dependency on VDKQueue is implicated, and it sounds like we may be able to use a native Apple recursive file / directory watcher as an alternative. Alternatively, I wonder about a semaphore for opening and a sweep to ensure file descriptors are closed as soon as possible upon the initial catalog scan could be helpful.

Related:

• https://github.com/quicksilver/Quicksilver/issues/3121
• https://github.com/quicksilver/Quicksilver/issues/2974

Steps to reproduce

1. rm -rf /tmp/QS
2. xcodebuild clean
3. run

Expected behavior

QS runs without crashing even from an empty cache

MacOS Version

macos26, macos27

Quicksilver Version

2.6.0

Relevant Plugins

emoji

Crash Logs or Spindump

Will update with a crash log

Screenshots

No response

Additional info

No response

Start by reproducing the crash with rm -rf /tmp/QS, xcodebuild clean, and a fresh run. Read the VDKQueue usage and the initial catalog scan, then compare related issues #3121 and #2974; done means Quicksilver starts without crashing from an empty cache and file descriptors are not exhausted.