diff --git a/include/lo2s/util.hpp b/include/lo2s/util.hpp
index 47f8db19..3cc0f294 100644
--- a/include/lo2s/util.hpp
+++ b/include/lo2s/util.hpp
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
 
 extern "C"
 {
+#include <sys/resource.h>
 #include <sys/types.h>
 #include <sys/utsname.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
@@ -114,6 +115,9 @@ void try_pin_to_scope(ExecutionScope scope);
 
 int get_cgroup_mountpoint_fd(std::string cgroup);
 
+void bump_rlimit_fd();
+struct rlimit save_rlimit_fd();
+
 Thread gettid();
 
 std::set<std::uint32_t> parse_list(std::string list);
diff --git a/src/main.cpp b/src/main.cpp
index d8e2b5d0..b48ff637 100644
--- a/src/main.cpp
+++ b/src/main.cpp
@@ -24,11 +24,20 @@
 #include <lo2s/monitor/process_monitor.hpp>
 #include <lo2s/monitor/process_monitor_main.hpp>
 #include <lo2s/summary.hpp>
+#include <lo2s/util.hpp>
 
 #include <system_error>
 
 int main(int argc, const char** argv)
 {
+    // The resource limit for file descriptors (which lo2s uses a lot of, especially in
+    // system-monitoring mode) is artifically low to cope with the ancient select() systemcall. We
+    // do not use select(), so we can safely bump the limit, but whatever command we are running
+    // under lo2s might (and resource limits are preserved accross fork()) so preserve it here so
+    // that we can restore it later
+    lo2s::save_rlimit_fd();
+    lo2s::bump_rlimit_fd();
+
     try
     {
         lo2s::parse_program_options(argc, argv);
diff --git a/src/monitor/process_monitor_main.cpp b/src/monitor/process_monitor_main.cpp
index c7b9c855..12238809 100644
--- a/src/monitor/process_monitor_main.cpp
+++ b/src/monitor/process_monitor_main.cpp
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ namespace monitor
 
 [[noreturn]] static void run_command(const std::vector<std::string>& command_and_args)
 {
+    struct rlimit saved_rlimit = save_rlimit_fd();
+    setrlimit(RLIMIT_OFILE, &saved_rlimit);
+
     /* kill yourself if the parent dies */
     prctl(PR_SET_PDEATHSIG, SIGHUP);
 
@@ -109,6 +112,7 @@ void process_monitor_main(AbstractProcessMonitor& monitor)
             throw_errno();
         }
     }
+
     if (process == Process::invalid())
     {
         Log::error() << "Fork failed.";
diff --git a/src/util.cpp b/src/util.cpp
index cb100e66..da22a1d9 100644
--- a/src/util.cpp
+++ b/src/util.cpp
@@ -366,4 +366,24 @@ std::string get_nec_thread_comm(Thread thread)
     // If no '--' is found, fall back to the complete commandline as a name
     return std::accumulate(args.begin(), args.end(), std::string(""));
 }
+
+struct rlimit save_rlimit_fd()
+{
+    static struct rlimit current;
+
+    if (current.rlim_cur == 0)
+    {
+        getrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &current);
+    }
+    return current;
+}
+
+void bump_rlimit_fd()
+{
+    struct rlimit highest;
+    getrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &highest);
+
+    highest.rlim_cur = highest.rlim_max;
+    setrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &highest);
+}
 } // namespace lo2s