--- sysutils.c.orig	Wed Sep 12 20:29:45 2001
+++ sysutils.c	Mon Jan 21 21:55:47 2002
@@ -37,6 +37,9 @@
 #include <grp.h>
 #include <sysutils.h>
 #include <fileutil.h>
+#ifdef __FreeBSD__
+#include <sys/sysctl.h>
+#endif
 
 #define	GETOUT		{ goto getout; }
 #define	CLEANUP		{ goto cleanup; }
@@ -763,9 +766,20 @@
 Int32
 free_fds()
 {
-  int	*fds = NULL, *newfds = NULL, fd;
   Int32	num_fds = 0;
 
+#ifdef __FreeBSD__
+  /* This code is for avoiding race conditions with other processes which
+   * might need a spare file descriptor while afbackup tries to find out
+   * how many of those it can use. sysctl gives us more general yet less
+   * reliable answer as it is does not count on a number of possibly
+   * opened files. */
+  size_t sz = sizeof( Int32);
+
+  sysctlbyname( "kern.maxfilesperproc", &num_fds, &sz, NULL, 0);
+#else
+  int	*fds = NULL, *newfds = NULL, fd;
+
   while((fd = open(NULLDEV, O_RDONLY)) >= 0){
     newfds = ZSRENEWP(fds, int, num_fds + 1, num_fds);
 
@@ -784,6 +798,7 @@
     close(fds[fd]);
 
   free(fds);
+#endif
 
   return(num_fds);
 }