[GENERAL] too many open files by postgresql backends

This is really an OS question, but I'm posting here as it is caused by
pgsql backends and I suspect some of you have already dealt with it...

My combination of apache and postgresql is quickly exceeding the
maximum number of open files (4096) under linux RH6.1.  In digging
around for how to up that number, I did find this article:

    http://www.redhat.com/mirrors/LDP/LDP/LG/issue37/tag/4.html

It seems to suggest that you can up the maximum number of files at any
time by doing the following:

    root# echo 10000 > /proc/sys/fs/file-max

Could this possibly be true?  I was expecting to have to recompile the
kernel, but would be oh-so-pleased if it were that easy.

Thanks in advance...

Cheers,
Ed Loehr