Linux – getting “write queue file: No space left on device” from postfix when there’s 5GB of free space on disk

debianlinuxpostfix

It started happening today… all of a sudden, no apparent reason!

Here's the output from df:

assp:~# df -k
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/simfs             6291456   1378384   4913072  22% /
tmpfs                  8202680         0   8202680   0% /lib/init/rw
tmpfs                  8202680         0   8202680   0% /dev/shm

assp:~# df -i
Filesystem            Inodes   IUsed   IFree IUse% Mounted on
/dev/simfs           55781934   83005 55698929    1% /
tmpfs                2050670       2 2050668    1% /lib/init/rw
tmpfs                2050670       1 2050669    1% /dev/shm

assp:~# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/simfs            6.0G  1.4G  4.7G  22% /
tmpfs                 7.9G     0  7.9G   0% /lib/init/rw
tmpfs                 7.9G     0  7.9G   0% /dev/shm

Here's an actual entry from /var/log/mail.warn:

Dec 11 17:55:37 assp postfix/smtpd[30614]: warning: not enough free space in mail queue: 0 bytes < 1.5*message size limit
Dec 11 17:55:37 assp postfix/cleanup[30617]: warning: 4361D850D54: write queue file: No space left on device

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Best Answer

You might want to run a df-i to see if you have used up all your inodes.

You can have available storage space, and not have the ability to add files.

cache:~# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1             132G   68G   58G  55% /
cache:~# df -i
Filesystem            Inodes   IUsed   IFree IUse% Mounted on
/dev/sda1            17514496 13543293 3971203   78% /

You also might want to check to see if you have any quotas set (repquota -va).

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