Quickly discover whether the filesystem is out of inodes and how to act before services fail. 16.11.2025 | reading time: 3 min Filesystems track two scarce resources: bytes and inodes; this short guide shows how to check free inodes from the shell, interpret the output, and fix the usual problems that follow. Quick reality check Run a quick inventory with `df -i` to see inode usage and free count; for example: ``` $ df -i / Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on /dev/sda1 655360 8231 647129 2% / ``` This tells that the root filesystem has plenty of free inodes; if IFree were zero, file creation would fail even if there is disk space left. Find where inodes are consumed When `df -i` looks bad, locate inode-heavy directories with a counting pipeline; run the command and inspect the top offenders: ``` $ find /var -xdev -printf '%h ' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -n 5 12000 /var/log 8000 /var/spool/mail 1200 /var/tmp ``` Now he can decide whether to rotate logs, clear mail spools, or remove old temporary files. Fixes you can apply immediately To free thousands of inodes, delete or archive many small files in bulk; for example remove files older than 30 days from a temp tree: ``` $ find /var/tmp -type f -mtime +30 -delete ``` If the problem is recurring, consider changing application behavior, rotating logs more aggressively, or moving data to another filesystem. Filesystem differences that matter Different FS implementations handle inodes differently: ext-family filesystems allocate a fixed inode table at format time, so increasing inode count requires reformatting or creating a new filesystem, while XFS allocates inodes dynamically and usually avoids this specific problem. Other useful commands Beyond `df -i` and `find`, tools such as `du` and `lsof` help diagnose space and open-file issues, and `tune2fs -l /dev/sda1` (on ext* filesystems) shows filesystem parameters that were set at mkfs time. When reformatting is the last resort If a filesystem was created with too few inodes and the workload cannot be changed, plan a migration: create a new filesystem with a different inode ratio or on a larger device, copy data during a maintenance window, and update mounts; always take backups before reformatting. Keep learning Monitoring inode usage is a small but critical part of filesystem administration; mastering these checks and remediations prepares him for larger Linux challenges and is a great step toward certifications like CompTIA Linux+ or LPIC-1, with intensive exam preparation available at bitsandbytes.academy. Join Bits & Bytes Academy First class LINUX exam preparation. filesystem utilities storage
