Best way to clear inodes?

Hey!

Quick update to this question here. I recently answered a similar question about this here:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions/28-no-space-left-on-device-error

Running out of inodes can be a real headache, especially when you have a folder with millions of smaller files. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered! Here’s a more efficient way to handle this using the find command directly.

1. Identify Inode Usage: First, let’s identify which directories are consuming the most inodes. You can use the find command combined with wc -l to get a count of the inodes used by each directory.

   find / -xdev -type d -exec sh -c 'echo -n "{}: "; find "{}" | wc -l' \; | sort -n -k2
   

   This command will give you a sorted list of directories with their inode usage.

2. Drill Down Further: Once you’ve identified the main directory, you need to drill down further. For example, if /home is the culprit:

   find /home -xdev -type d -exec sh -c 'echo -n "{}: "; find "{}" | wc -l' \; | sort -n -k2
   

   Keep drilling down until you find the specific directory causing the issue.

3. Handle Hidden Files: Include hidden files in your search by specifying the appropriate paths:

   find /home/youruser -xdev -type d -exec sh -c 'echo -n "{}: "; find "{}" -name ".*" | wc -l' \; | sort -n -k2
   

4. Clean Up: Once you’ve found the directory with the most inodes, it’s time to clean up. Here are a few strategies:

   • Delete Unnecessary Files: Identify and delete files you don’t need. For example, temporary files, logs, or cache files:

     find /home/youruser/temp -type f -delete
     

5. Automate Cleanups: To prevent this from happening again, you can set up a cron job to regularly clean up unnecessary files:

   crontab -e
   

   Add a job to clean up temporary files every week:

   0 3 * * 0 find /home/youruser/temp -type f -mtime +7 -delete
   

6. Increase Inode Limit: If the issue persists and you can’t delete any more files, consider resizing your filesystem to increase the inode limit. This is a more complex operation and might require backing up your data.

Here are some commands to help you get started:

# Check inode usage
df -i

# Identify high inode usage directories
find / -xdev -type d -exec sh -c 'echo -n "{}: "; find "{}" | wc -l' \; | sort -n -k2

# Drill down into specific directories
find /home -xdev -type d -exec sh -c 'echo -n "{}: "; find "{}" | wc -l' \; | sort -n -k2

# Include hidden files in search
find /home/youruser -xdev -type d -exec sh -c 'echo -n "{}: "; find "{}" -name ".*" | wc -l' \; | sort -n -k2

# Delete unnecessary temporary files
find /home/youruser/temp -type f -delete

# Compress files
tar -czvf archive.tar.gz /home/youruser/folder

# Move files to another server
scp -r /home/youruser/folder user@other-server:/path/to/destination

# Automate cleanups with cron job
crontab -e

By following these steps, you should be able to clear up some inodes and prevent this issue from recurring in the future.

- Bobby