ulimit is unlimited and cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max 11769
I just went through the same kind of mistake - ulimit doesn't report what you think it does, what you should check is ulimit -n (the -n isn't just the option to set the value). If you're using bash as your shell that will almost certainly by 1024 which I've found isn't enough to search and write at the same time. The commit winds up throwing an exception and the lock file(s) get left around causing further problems.
The first thing I'd try is upping the ulimit -n to 20000 and see if that resolves the issue, it did for me.
Regards, Adrian Sutton http://www.symphonious.net
