How can I remove error writing to /tmp/cc6sZ4kE.s: No space left on device?

Question

I have this error when I compile a C program:

writing to /tmp/cc6sZ4kE.s: No space left on device

How do I fix this?

Answer 1

“No space left on device” means that the disk is full. You need to make some space on the disk (partition) that contains /tmp, or more precisely on the filesystem that contains /tmp.

This has nothing to do with the content of the program (unless you managed to write a program that compiles to a multi-gigabyte binary).

Check where /tmp is located and how much space there is:

df /tmp

If /tmp is its own filesystem (it says /tmp in the “Mounted on” column) then check where the space is being used:

du /tmp | sort -n

Look at the directories at the end of the list. To see the biggest files in a directory, run e.g.

ls -lrS /tmp

If /tmp is on the root filesystem (it says / in the “Mounted on” column in the output of df /tmp) then you need to make some space on your disk. See How to understand what's taking up disk space?