I need to create a very high number of files which are not very large (like 4kb,8kb). It's not possible on my computer cause it takes all inodes up to 100% and I cannot create more files :
$ df -i /dev/sda5
Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on
/dev/sda5 54362112 36381206 17980906 67% /scratch
(I started deleting files, it's why it's now 67%)
The bytes-per-nodes are of 256 on my filesystem (ext4)
$ sudo tune2fs -l /dev/sda5 | grep Inode
Inode count: 54362112
Inodes per group: 8192
Inode blocks per group: 512
Inode size: 256
I wonder if it's possible to set this value very low even below 128(during reformating). If yes,what value should I use? Thx
Answer
The default bytes per inode is usually 16384, which is the default inode_ratio in /etc/mke2fs.conf (it's read prior to filesystem creation). If you're running out of inodes, you might try for example:
mkfs.ext4 -i 8192 /dev/mapper/main-var2
Another option that affects this is -T, typically -T news which further reduces it to 4096.
Also, you can not change the number of inodes in a ext3 or ext4 filesystem without re-creating or hex-editing it. Reiser filesystems are dynamic so you'll never have an issue with them.