--- a/jdk/src/solaris/classes/sun/nio/fs/LinuxWatchService.java	Sat Aug 27 02:17:33 2011 -0700
+++ b/jdk/src/solaris/classes/sun/nio/fs/LinuxWatchService.java	Sat Aug 27 15:40:45 2011 +0100
@@ -58,7 +58,10 @@
         try {
             ifd = inotifyInit();
         } catch (UnixException x) {
-            throw new IOException(x.errorString());
+            String msg = (x.errno() == EMFILE) ?
+                "User limit of inotify instances reached or too many open files" :
+                x.errorString();
+            throw new IOException(msg);
         }
 
         // configure inotify to be non-blocking