diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index bebdc8f22f..bf77eb6106 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -4,8 +4,10 @@ tor (0.1.0.0-alpha-cvs-1) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
   * Forward port 06_add_compile_time_defaults.
   * Add libevent-dev to build-depends.
   * Update URL to tor in debian/control and debian/copyright.
+  * Set ulimit for file descriptors to 4096 in our init
+    script.
 
- -- Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org>  Sun, 23 Jan 2005 16:26:13 +0100
+ -- Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org>  Wed,  2 Feb 2005 07:19:34 +0100
 
 tor (0.0.9.3-1) unstable; urgency=low
 
diff --git a/debian/tor.default b/debian/tor.default
index a9a023105a..92491c2b1d 100644
--- a/debian/tor.default
+++ b/debian/tor.default
@@ -7,6 +7,13 @@
 #
 RUN_DAEMON="yes"
 
+#
+# Servers sometimes may need more than the default 1024 file descriptors
+# if they are very busy and have many clients connected to them.
+#  (ulimit -n)
+#
+MAX_FILEDESCRIPTORS=4096
+
 #
 # Uncomment this if you want to get coredumps
 #
diff --git a/debian/tor.init b/debian/tor.init
index 3763996f9f..93fb375448 100644
--- a/debian/tor.init
+++ b/debian/tor.init
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ TORPID=/var/run/tor/tor.pid
 DEFAULTSFILE=/etc/default/$NAME
 WAITFORDAEMON=10
 ARGS=""
+MAX_FILEDESCRIPTORS=4096
 
 test -x $DAEMON || exit 0
 
@@ -49,6 +50,7 @@ case "$1" in
 		echo "Not starting $DESC (Disabled in $DEFAULTSFILE)."
 	else
 		echo "Starting $DESC: $NAME..."
+		ulimit -n $MAX_FILEDESCRIPTORS
 		start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --oknodo \
 			--chuid debian-tor:debian-tor \
 			--pidfile $TORPID \