I read through the source codes and find the limit should be applied to each worker process. Right ?

static void
ngx_worker_process_init(ngx_cycle_t *cycle, ngx_int_t worker)
{
// .....

if (ccf->rlimit_nofile != NGX_CONF_UNSET) {
rlmt.rlim_cur = (rlim_t) ccf->rlimit_nofile;
rlmt.rlim_max = (rlim_t) ccf->rlimit_nofile;

if (setrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &rlmt) == -1) {
ngx_log_error(NGX_LOG_ALERT, cycle->log, ngx_errno,
"setrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, %i) failed",
ccf->rlimit_nofile);
}
}