[users@httpd] why over 40k open files on low-use server

[Cliff Hayes <ch...@afo.net>]

For some unknown reason, going from Fedora 23 with apache 2.4.18 to 
Fedora 30 with apache 2.4.41 has tripled the size of the apache 
footprint on servers with the same configuration.
Below is an extract from lsof results.
152 processes are running for every process ID.
The same 152 processes are repeated 278 times, each with a different 
process ID, but all are under the apache main process.
This is on a server running roundcube mail with roughly 100 users, only 
a few of those are actually using it at any given time.  Right now it is 
very low usage, but I want to be able to increase usage.
How can I reduce the amount of files apache has open?
I am using all of the defaults and I have no experience with MPM or any 
other apache optimizations, so none of those are being used.
I have searched the Internet and all I find is advice on how to increase 
the open file limit, which I do not want to do and should not have to.
I have opened forum topics and all I get is advice unrelated to apache.
The issue is definitely apache.
Thanks in advance.

/
/
/usr/sbin/httpd
/usr/lib64/libnss_systemd.so.2
/usr/lib64/libnss_files-2.29.so
/var/lib/sss/mc/initgroups
/dev/zero
/dev/zero
/var/lib/sss/mc/group
/var/lib/sss/mc/passwd
/usr/lib64/libnss_sss.so.2
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_http2.so
/usr/lib64/libnghttp2.so.14.18.0
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_http2.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_cgid.so
/usr/lib64/libcrypto.so.1.1.1c
/usr/lib64/libssl.so.1.1.1c
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_systemd.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_ssl.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_wstunnel.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_uwsgi.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_scgi.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_hcheck.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_http.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_ftp.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_fdpass.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_fcgi.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_express.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_connect.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_balancer.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_lbmethod_heartbeat.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_lbmethod_bytraffic.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_lbmethod_byrequests.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_mpm_event.so
/usr/lib64/liblua-5.3.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_lbmethod_bybusyness.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_lua.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_dav_lock.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_dav_fs.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_dav.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_watchdog.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_vhost_alias.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_version.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_userdir.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_unixd.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_unique_id.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_suexec.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_substitute.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_status.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_socache_shmcb.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_socache_redis.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_socache_memcache.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_socache_dbm.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_slotmem_shm.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_slotmem_plain.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_setenvif.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_rewrite.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_request.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_reqtimeout.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_remoteip.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_negotiation.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_mime.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_mime_magic.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_macro.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_logio.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_log_config.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_info.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_include.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_headers.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_filter.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_ext_filter.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_expires.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_env.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_echo.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_dumpio.so
/usr/lib64/libz.so.1.2.11
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_dir.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_deflate.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_dbd.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_cache_socache.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_cache_disk.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_cache.so
/usr/lib64/libbrotlicommon.so.1.0.7
/usr/lib64/libm-2.29.so
/usr/lib64/libbrotlienc.so.1.0.7
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_data.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_brotli.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_autoindex.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authz_user.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authz_owner.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authz_host.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authz_groupfile.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authz_dbm.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authz_dbd.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authz_core.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authn_socache.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authn_file.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authn_dbm.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authn_dbd.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authn_core.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authn_anon.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_auth_digest.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_auth_basic.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_allowmethods.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_alias.so
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_actions.so
/usr/lib64/libgpg-error.so.0.25.0
/usr/lib64/libuuid.so.1.3.0
/usr/lib64/libgcc_s-9-20190827.so.1
/usr/lib64/libgcrypt.so.20.2.5
/usr/lib64/liblz4.so.1.9.1
/usr/lib64/liblzma.so.5.2.4
/usr/lib64/librt-2.29.so
/usr/lib64/libpcre2-8.so.0.8.0
/usr/lib64/libc-2.29.so
/usr/lib64/libdl-2.29.so
/usr/lib64/libpthread-2.29.so
/usr/lib64/libapr-1.so.0.6.5
/usr/lib64/libexpat.so.1.6.9
/usr/lib64/libcrypt.so.2.0.0
/usr/lib64/libaprutil-1.so.0.6.1
/usr/lib64/libsystemd.so.0.25.0
/usr/lib64/libselinux.so.1
/usr/lib64/libpcre.so.1.2.11
/dev/zero
/usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_access_compat.so
/usr/lib64/ld-2.29.so
/dev/zero
/dev/null
type=STREAM
/var/log/httpd/error_log
protocol: TCP
*:http (LISTEN)
/var/lib/sss/mc/passwd
/var/lib/sss/mc/group
protocol: TCP
*:https (LISTEN)
pipe
pipe
/var/log/httpd/ssl_error_log
/var/log/httpd/access_log
/var/log/httpd/ssl_access_log
/var/log/httpd/ssl_request_log
/var/log/httpd/ssl_access_log
/var/log/httpd/ssl_request_log
type=DGRAM
/var/lib/sss/mc/initgroups
protocol: TCP
[eventpoll]
pipe
pipe

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