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ENOSPC
Why available disk space is not the whole story
ENOSPC reports that the target filesystem cannot allocate a resource needed by the operation. That can be ordinary data blocks, but it can also be an inode, directory metadata, journal space, or a reservation required to create or extend a file. A host can therefore show free bytes while a small-file workload still fails because the inode pool or filesystem metadata is exhausted.
Do not confuse this result with a user or project quota failure, which is normally reported as EDQUOT. The failed pathname must also be checked against the actual mount used by the application: containers, bind mounts, temporary directories, and separate log volumes can make the visible root filesystem irrelevant.
Useful checks
- Inspect free blocks and free inodes on the exact mount that contains the target path.
- Check quota and project-quota policy separately from filesystem capacity.
- Look for deleted-but-still-open files and for a rapid growth pattern caused by logs, spool files, snapshots, or temporary output.
- Handle partial writes and fail closed for durable data rather than retrying until the host becomes unstable.
References
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