[CentOS] Re: too many links error when creating directories

[Robert Nichols]

chitgoks wrote:
> hi , our centos os has an ext3 file system. and i cant create any more
> directories, it gives me a too many links error, even when doing a manual
> mkdir.
> 
> is there any workaround for this? without changing it to a different file
> system like reiserFS? we dont have a reiserfs module in the os so it will
> have to be installed. and can it be possible to install a reiserFS without
> having to reformat the os? just mount it after installing? please advise

The issue is the link count in the inode for the parent directory.  Each
subdirectory has a ".." link that points back to the parent, and the
maximum link count for an inode in an EXT2 or EXT3 filesystem is 32000.
A directory begins life with a link count of 2, so there is a hard limit
of 31998 subdirectories.

The limit for reiserfs is larger (max unsigned integer - 1000), so that
would avoid the problem.  Yes, you can certainly create a reiserfs
filesystem and mount it without having to reformat other filesystems on
your machine.  You will lose whatever data was on the partition that
you reformat.

-- 
Bob Nichols     "NOSPAM" is really part of my email address.
                 Do NOT delete it.