diff --git a/lib/std/process.zig b/lib/std/process.zig
index cf5837a002..ac7e0f6d08 100644
--- a/lib/std/process.zig
+++ b/lib/std/process.zig
@@ -1742,3 +1742,49 @@ pub fn cleanExit() void {
         exit(0);
     }
 }
+
+/// Raise the open file descriptor limit.
+///
+/// On some systems, this raises the limit before seeing ProcessFdQuotaExceeded
+/// errors. On other systems, this does nothing.
+pub fn raiseFileDescriptorLimit() void {
+    const have_rlimit = switch (native_os) {
+        .windows, .wasi => false,
+        else => true,
+    };
+    if (!have_rlimit) return;
+
+    var lim = posix.getrlimit(.NOFILE) catch return; // Oh well; we tried.
+    if (native_os.isDarwin()) {
+        // On Darwin, `NOFILE` is bounded by a hardcoded value `OPEN_MAX`.
+        // According to the man pages for setrlimit():
+        //   setrlimit() now returns with errno set to EINVAL in places that historically succeeded.
+        //   It no longer accepts "rlim_cur = RLIM.INFINITY" for RLIM.NOFILE.
+        //   Use "rlim_cur = min(OPEN_MAX, rlim_max)".
+        lim.max = @min(std.c.OPEN_MAX, lim.max);
+    }
+    if (lim.cur == lim.max) return;
+
+    // Do a binary search for the limit.
+    var min: posix.rlim_t = lim.cur;
+    var max: posix.rlim_t = 1 << 20;
+    // But if there's a defined upper bound, don't search, just set it.
+    if (lim.max != posix.RLIM.INFINITY) {
+        min = lim.max;
+        max = lim.max;
+    }
+
+    while (true) {
+        lim.cur = min + @divTrunc(max - min, 2); // on freebsd rlim_t is signed
+        if (posix.setrlimit(.NOFILE, lim)) |_| {
+            min = lim.cur;
+        } else |_| {
+            max = lim.cur;
+        }
+        if (min + 1 >= max) break;
+    }
+}
+
+test raiseFileDescriptorLimit {
+    raiseFileDescriptorLimit();
+}
diff --git a/src/main.zig b/src/main.zig
index d18d085c19..0541d78cd9 100644
--- a/src/main.zig
+++ b/src/main.zig
@@ -3197,7 +3197,7 @@ fn buildOutputType(
         break :b .incremental;
     };
 
-    gimmeMoreOfThoseSweetSweetFileDescriptors();
+    process.raiseFileDescriptorLimit();
 
     const comp = Compilation.create(gpa, arena, .{
         .zig_lib_directory = zig_lib_directory,
@@ -4908,7 +4908,7 @@ fn cmdBuild(gpa: Allocator, arena: Allocator, args: []const []const u8) !void {
         .basename = exe_basename,
     };
 
-    gimmeMoreOfThoseSweetSweetFileDescriptors();
+    process.raiseFileDescriptorLimit();
 
     var zig_lib_directory: Compilation.Directory = if (override_lib_dir) |lib_dir| .{
         .path = lib_dir,
@@ -5973,55 +5973,6 @@ fn parseCodeModel(arg: []const u8) std.builtin.CodeModel {
         fatal("unsupported machine code model: '{s}'", .{arg});
 }
 
-/// Raise the open file descriptor limit. Ask and ye shall receive.
-/// For one example of why this is handy, consider the case of building musl libc.
-/// We keep a lock open for each of the object files in the form of a file descriptor
-/// until they are finally put into an archive file. This is to allow a zig-cache
-/// garbage collector to run concurrently to zig processes, and to allow multiple
-/// zig processes to run concurrently with each other, without clobbering each other.
-fn gimmeMoreOfThoseSweetSweetFileDescriptors() void {
-    const have_rlimit = switch (native_os) {
-        .windows, .wasi => false,
-        else => true,
-    };
-    if (!have_rlimit) return;
-    const posix = std.posix;
-
-    var lim = posix.getrlimit(.NOFILE) catch return; // Oh well; we tried.
-    if (native_os.isDarwin()) {
-        // On Darwin, `NOFILE` is bounded by a hardcoded value `OPEN_MAX`.
-        // According to the man pages for setrlimit():
-        //   setrlimit() now returns with errno set to EINVAL in places that historically succeeded.
-        //   It no longer accepts "rlim_cur = RLIM.INFINITY" for RLIM.NOFILE.
-        //   Use "rlim_cur = min(OPEN_MAX, rlim_max)".
-        lim.max = @min(std.c.OPEN_MAX, lim.max);
-    }
-    if (lim.cur == lim.max) return;
-
-    // Do a binary search for the limit.
-    var min: posix.rlim_t = lim.cur;
-    var max: posix.rlim_t = 1 << 20;
-    // But if there's a defined upper bound, don't search, just set it.
-    if (lim.max != posix.RLIM.INFINITY) {
-        min = lim.max;
-        max = lim.max;
-    }
-
-    while (true) {
-        lim.cur = min + @divTrunc(max - min, 2); // on freebsd rlim_t is signed
-        if (posix.setrlimit(.NOFILE, lim)) |_| {
-            min = lim.cur;
-        } else |_| {
-            max = lim.cur;
-        }
-        if (min + 1 >= max) break;
-    }
-}
-
-test "fds" {
-    gimmeMoreOfThoseSweetSweetFileDescriptors();
-}
-
 const usage_ast_check =
     \\Usage: zig ast-check [file]
     \\