Re: 'out of space' vs 'out of inodes'?

[bob@proulx.com (Bob Proulx)]

Kevin Mark wrote:
> A general Linux question: why does Linux report 'out of space' error
> when it runs out of inodes? Can't it distinguish between the 2
> conditions to give the correct message or is there some other issue?
> Just curious as I just go this after making 1,000,000 small test files
> and got this (du -m -i).

Check out /usr/include/asm-generic/errno-base.h and see that the error
you are mostly likely getting is ENOSPC which gets translated to the
libc sys_errlist as "No space left on device".  There is just the one
error code there, no space, and I believe is simply used generically
for both errors.  There is no E-out-of-inodes error code.  Therefore
no way for userland programs to report anything different.

Bob