This solves the error
error: cannot connect to socket at '/nix/var/nix/daemon-socket/socket': Connection refused
on build farm systems that are loaded but operating normally.
I've seen this happen on an M1 mac running a loaded hercules-ci-agent.
Hercules CI uses multiple worker processes, which may connect to
the Nix daemon around the same time. It's not unthinkable that
the Nix daemon listening process isn't scheduled until after 6
workers try to connect, especially on a system under load with
many workers.
Is the increase safe?
The number is the number of connections that the kernel will buffer
while the listening process hasn't `accept`-ed them yet.
It did not - and will not - restrict the total number of daemon
forks that a client can create.
History
The number 5 has remained unchanged since the introduction in
nix-worker with 0130ef88ea in 2006.