>>> /: create/symlink failed, no inodes free
>> Looks like [...] [i]t was just a tossup whether you ran out of
>> inodes first or space first.
> alpha500# df -k
> Filesystem  1K-blocks     Used    Avail Capacity  Mounted on
> /dev/sd0a      127431    62708    58351    51%    /
> /dev/sd0d     1601733   426740  1094906    28%    /usr
> looks like i still had space on /

Yeah - data space.  Try df -i and see if maybe you aren't really low on
inodes. :-)  (If you get that error and df -i says you have more than a
few inodes left, There Is A Bug - I say "more than a few" rather than
"any" because there may be temporary files or the like.)

> how does the system determine if there is not enough inodes given
> that there is enough space left?

Data blocks left (what df shows you without -i) has *nothing* to do
with inodes left, at least not for ffs (or any other local filesystem
type that supports writes AFAIK).  The total number of inodes is fixed
at filesystem create time; the only way to change it is to remake the
filesystem.  (Almost.  I did take a stab at writing a filesystem
resizer, but even if I had it working, it isn't designed to change
inode counts without resizing the filesystem).

> on a side note, each time i add more HDs, i make a new swap partition
> equal to that of my max ram.  then add that new swap partition to the
> old swap pool.  am i wasting disk space?

If you'll never need that much VM.  Your total available VM is total
RAM + total swap (roughly - it's actually a little less because various
things steal some RAM for overhead, but if you're talking gigs, the
overhead is down in the noise).

> i just have this fear of one day running out of swap space. so for
> this system, each new HD has 1gig set aside for swap (max ram is 1gig
> right now).

Unless you're running some king hell huge programs you should be fine.
("A gigabyte here, a gigabyte there, pretty soon you're talking serious
memory usage." :-)

					der Mouse

			       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
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