Why is `/etc/sysctl.conf` not determining my `kern.maxfiles` setting?
See /etc/launchd.conf

For some reason, I had this in /etc/launchd.conf:

limit maxfiles 2048


This apparently overrode my settings in /etc/sysctl.conf, either by being considered more important or by being executed later in the bootup process.

After I removed this and rebooted, my settings from /etc/sysctl.conf had taken effect.