What occurs when a filesystem runs out of inodes?

When a filesystem runs out of inodes, it encounters inode exhaustion. Inodes are data structures used by the filesystem to store information about files and directories, including their metadata and location on disk. Each file or directory requires an inode to be created, and if the total number of inodes allocated to the filesystem is exhausted, no new files or directories can be created, even if there is still available disk space.

This situation does not immediately lead to file deletion errors, filesystem corruption, or restoration failures, but rather manifests as an inability to create new files or directories. Users may encounter messages indicating that the filesystem has run out of inodes, effectively locking them out from additional file operations. Understanding this concept is crucial for Linux administrators, as it highlights the importance of monitoring inode usage, especially in environments with a high number of small files.