Why Inode Exhaustion Happens
On a busy server you’ll often see df still showing plenty of space, but df -i screaming 100 % inode usage on a mount like /usr. The kernel will happily refuse to create any more files, even though there’s room on disk. The culprit is usually a deluge of tiny files—think logs, temp data, or a mis‑configured service that never cleans up.
Spotting the Problem Quickly
# Space vs. inodes
df -h /usr
df -i /usr
If the first command reports 20 GB free but the second is 100 % used, you’ve hit an inode shortage. Now find the directory that’s eating them.
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