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02-09-2010, 11:35 AM
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#1
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Feb 2010
Posts: 5
Rep:
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Commands fail with disk full messages, but df says I've got plenty of space
I've been getting error messages indicating my disk might be full, but I don't really think it is. It is so bad that I could not log on via Gnome, but fortunately I was able SSH into my box. Once in, however, I can't even create a directory!
So I did the df command:
Code:
vree:~/tmp$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb1 132G 57G 69G 46% /
tmpfs 505M 0 505M 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 505M 124K 505M 1% /var/run
varlock 505M 0 505M 0% /var/lock
udev 505M 2.7M 502M 1% /dev
tmpfs 505M 24K 505M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 505M 2.0M 503M 1% /lib/modules/2.6.27-11-generic/volatile
Hmm... Doesn't look full to me, as df reports 69G available! Or am I confused?
Any ideas?
TIA,
-Bob
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02-09-2010, 11:38 AM
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#2
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Senior Member
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Kolkata, India
Distribution: Debian 64-bit GNU/Linux, Kubuntu64, Fedora QA, Slackware,
Posts: 2,766
Rep: 
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fsck the partitions
Get full info on the relevant partitions incl inodes
ext4?
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02-09-2010, 05:02 PM
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#3
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Member
Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Florida
Distribution: Fedora 18
Posts: 862
Rep:
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Exactly what are the error messages saying? Also, just for kicks and giggles, post the results of:
fdisk -l
Is this a new install? What distro are you using?
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02-09-2010, 05:06 PM
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#4
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Senior Member
Registered: Nov 2004
Location: Texas
Distribution: RHEL, Scientific Linux, Debian, Fedora
Posts: 3,935
Rep: 
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Also, post the output of mount and df -i.
You may have a read-only filesystem, which the fsck could probably evaluate and repair. (Likely cause.) Or... you could be out of inodes. (Unlikely.)
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02-09-2010, 05:08 PM
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#5
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LQ Guru
Registered: Aug 2004
Location: Sydney
Distribution: Rocky 9.x
Posts: 18,434
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Definitely post the exact error msgs. You can also check the inodes
df -i
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02-09-2010, 09:21 PM
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#6
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Member
Registered: Oct 2004
Location: Atlanta
Distribution: CentOS, RHEL, HP-UX, OS X
Posts: 567
Rep:
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your df command shows / mounted on /dev/sdb1. What is on /dev/sda?
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02-09-2010, 09:31 PM
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#7
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Feb 2010
Location: Colorado
Distribution: Fedora
Posts: 17
Rep:
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What "error" are you receiving
Quote:
Originally Posted by rsgrimes
I've been getting error messages indicating my disk might be full
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What is the error you are getting?
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02-10-2010, 08:11 AM
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#8
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Feb 2010
Posts: 5
Original Poster
Rep:
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Wow! Thanks for all the responses! Here are my replies...
1. Sorry I wasn't clear on ther actual error messages. Here is one example; basically, I get the same "No space left on device" regardless of what I try:
Code:
mkdir: cannot create directory `testdir': No space left on device
2. It is an old installation (Ubuntu 8.10), about a year, pretty much just used as a Subversion and Trac server...
3. After rebooting, I was able to log on in a fail-safe terminal, and by deleting a few files, I was able to do the following, as suggested by several posts I've found:
Code:
sudo touch /forcefsck
Rebooting again, I still have the problem.
4. fdisk -l and mount results
Code:
vree:~$ fdisk -l
Cannot open /dev/sda
Cannot open /dev/sdb
rsg@#vree
vree:~$ mount
/dev/sdb1 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
/proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.27-11-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw,mode=755)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
rpc_pipefs on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
nfsd on /proc/fs/nfsd type nfsd (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
5. df -i results
Code:
vree:~$ df -i
Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on
/dev/sdb1 8773632 8773616 16 100% /
tmpfs 129117 4 129113 1% /lib/init/rw
varrun 129117 59 129058 1% /var/run
varlock 129117 3 129114 1% /var/lock
udev 129117 4941 124176 4% /dev
tmpfs 129117 1 129116 1% /dev/shm
lrm 129117 17 129100 1% /lib/modules/2.6.27-11-generic/volatile
So it's an INode problem! Okay, I know what INodes are, but I don't know how to manage them. FWIW, I wouldn't think I have that many files, so I would welcome suggestions on the usual suspects, you know, where to look, what generally causes lots of extraneous inodes, etc.
Thanks!
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02-10-2010, 09:14 AM
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#9
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Feb 2010
Posts: 5
Original Poster
Rep:
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RESOLVED Commands fail with disk full messages, but df says I've got plenty of space
I found my problem! I have been using BackInTime (a poor man's Time Machine) on my workstation, and it was taking snapshots on the server; I haven't constrained it a bit, and so it has generated quite a few files - I'm currently counting them, and it's up to almost 4 million - and counting!
That's what you get with "set and forget" tools! (No, that's not a criticism of BackInTime!).
Thanks,
-Bob
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02-10-2010, 09:21 AM
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#10
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Moderator
Registered: Aug 2002
Posts: 26,758
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An inode is a data structure that is associated with each file. With ext3 the max number of inodes is set when the filesystem is created and the only way to increase the number is to reformat. You can not manage them i.e if you run out of inodes you can not create more files. There are other filesystems that can dynamically allocate inodes like jfs, xfs or ext4.
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1 members found this post helpful.
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02-10-2010, 11:11 AM
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#11
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Feb 2010
Posts: 5
Original Poster
Rep:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelk
An inode is a data structure that is associated with each file.
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Yeah, this I know, but...
Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelk
With ext3 the max number of inodes is set when the filesystem is created and the only way to increase the number is to reformat. You can not manage them i.e if you run out of inodes you can not create more files. There are other filesystems that can dynamically allocate inodes like jfs, xfs or ext4.
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...this I didn't - thanks for the info!
Cheers,
-Bob
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02-10-2010, 05:24 PM
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#12
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LQ Guru
Registered: Aug 2004
Location: Sydney
Distribution: Rocky 9.x
Posts: 18,434
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Also, there's not much point in backing up to the same disk; what happens if the disk goes bad?

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02-11-2010, 05:57 AM
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#13
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Feb 2010
Posts: 5
Original Poster
Rep:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chrism01
Also, there's not much point in backing up to the same disk; what happens if the disk goes bad?

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No, it was another computer backingup to this computer - of course, what you say makes sense!
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02-11-2010, 02:46 PM
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#14
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Senior Member
Registered: Jan 2003
Location: Illinois (SW Chicago 'burbs)
Distribution: openSUSE, Raspbian, Slackware. Previous: MacOS, Red Hat, Coherent, Consensys SVR4.2, Tru64, Solaris
Posts: 2,849
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rsgrimes
I haven't constrained it a bit, and so it has generated quite a few files - I'm currently counting them, and it's up to almost 4 million - and counting!
That's what you get with "set and forget" tools! (No, that's not a criticism of BackInTime!).
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Not being familiar with that tool, I'm wonder whether it is possible to configure it so that you can be emailed a summary of what was backed up/saved? If so, maybe you could put the number of files acted on right into the "Subject:" line you'd get that "In Your Face" reminder to keep track of things.
Later...
--
Rick
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02-11-2010, 05:03 PM
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#15
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LQ Guru
Registered: Aug 2004
Location: Sydney
Distribution: Rocky 9.x
Posts: 18,434
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You can add a cron job to check the disk space, both filespace & inode cnt and email you if you exceed specified values.
You can even use quotas, eg soft limit at warning level, hard limit at full disk.
Quotas have both diskspace and inode settings.
Last edited by chrism01; 02-11-2010 at 05:05 PM.
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