Ubuntu: bash: cannot create temp file for here-document: No space left on device

Question

I receive the error No space left on device from bash upon filename tab completion.

As I try to spot what has eaten up my space, as suggested on similar question, I'm confused by df -ah results. My pc has 220GB disk and it seems only 66GB are used.

Where is the problem? lot of docker images in var/lib? should I move them somewhere else?

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
sysfs              0     0     0    - /sys
proc               0     0     0    - /proc
udev            7,8G     0  7,8G   0% /dev
devpts             0     0     0    - /dev/pts
tmpfs           1,6G   11M  1,6G   1% /run
/dev/nvme0n1p7   34G   32G     0 100% /
securityfs         0     0     0    - /sys/kernel/security
tmpfs           7,8G   26M  7,8G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5,0M  4,0K  5,0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           7,8G     0  7,8G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
cgroup             0     0     0    - /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd
pstore             0     0     0    - /sys/fs/pstore
efivarfs           0     0     0    - /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
cgroup             0     0     0    - /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset
cgroup             0     0     0    - /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls,net_prio
cgroup             0     0     0    - /sys/fs/cgroup/pids
cgroup             0     0     0    - /sys/fs/cgroup/rdma
cgroup             0     0     0    - /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer
cgroup             0     0     0    - /sys/fs/cgroup/devices
cgroup             0     0     0    - /sys/fs/cgroup/memory
cgroup             0     0     0    - /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio
cgroup             0     0     0    - /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct
cgroup             0     0     0    - /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event
cgroup             0     0     0    - /sys/fs/cgroup/hugetlb
systemd-1          -     -     -    - /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc
mqueue             0     0     0    - /dev/mqueue
debugfs            0     0     0    - /sys/kernel/debug
hugetlbfs          0     0     0    - /dev/hugepages
configfs           0     0     0    - /sys/kernel/config
fusectl            0     0     0    - /sys/fs/fuse/connections
/dev/loop2       54M   54M     0 100% /snap/core18/677
/dev/loop3      148M  148M     0 100% /snap/skype/66
/dev/loop1      202M  202M     0 100% /snap/hiri/53
/dev/loop4       92M   92M     0 100% /snap/core/6259
/dev/loop6       43M   43M     0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/701
/dev/loop7      136M  136M     0 100% /snap/chromium/490
/dev/loop5      227M  227M     0 100% /snap/pycharm-community/83
/dev/loop8      165M  165M     0 100% /snap/noson/160
/dev/loop10     142M  142M     0 100% /snap/skype/51
/dev/loop12     139M  139M     0 100% /snap/skype/54
/dev/loop13      91M   91M     0 100% /snap/core/6350
/dev/loop9      202M  202M     0 100% /snap/hiri/56
/dev/loop11     271M  271M     0 100% /snap/pycharm-community/108
/dev/loop16     477M  477M     0 100% /snap/libreoffice/100
/dev/loop14     179M  179M     0 100% /snap/noson/175
/dev/loop20     478M  478M     0 100% /snap/libreoffice/80
/dev/loop19     144M  144M     0 100% /snap/chromium/566
/dev/loop23      54M   54M     0 100% /snap/core18/594
/dev/loop21      35M   35M     0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/818
/dev/loop25     271M  271M     0 100% /snap/pycharm-community/112
/dev/loop26     193M  193M     0 100% /snap/hiri/42
/dev/nvme0n1p9  173G   16G  149G  10% /home
/dev/nvme0n1p1  496M   64M  433M  13% /boot/efi
binfmt_misc        0     0     0    - /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc
tmpfs           1,6G     0  1,6G   0% /run/user/0
tmpfs           1,6G   60K  1,6G   1% /run/user/1000
gvfsd-fuse         0     0     0    - /run/user/1000/gvfs
/dev/loop27      54M   54M     0 100% /snap/core18/719
/dev/loop24      91M   91M     0 100% /snap/core/6405
/dev/loop0       35M   35M     0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1122
/dev/loop22      94M   94M     0 100% /snap/noson/179
/dev/loop17     147M  147M     0 100% /snap/chromium/595
/dev/loop18     484M  484M     0 100% /snap/libreoffice/104
overlay            -     -     -    - /var/lib/docker/overlay2/0d3c09bca9a7835f9c9b51114c9c15d08b127dbf7eacc53f7dccaa9f79c9885e/merged
overlay            -     -     -    - /var/lib/docker/overlay2/085ba20c74d4078feda19d9a71ce2b04810ea22ac1e074f451a81a6d60d80c10/merged
overlay            -     -     -    - /var/lib/docker/overlay2/08de193cf78bd7284cd8b2254c727a859039b34bfc1288c579d964f4b2029f45/merged
shm                -     -     -    - /var/lib/docker/containers/b32add46586fc18218271486f137687430272cabed1e8090be8d4301d7cb3368/mounts/shm
shm                -     -     -    - /var/lib/docker/containers/d8c1e0688afd134667083c1fcf467ec2b252fc8e6457ed1635a70642ce536f77/mounts/shm
shm                -     -     -    - /var/lib/docker/containers/80982ee282be06f4dd5cc8e3fbad5ebe215e9257db61f9e1cac87bbc6543f058/mounts/shm
nsfs               -     -     -    - /run/docker/netns/4b8d6fe23d4c
nsfs               -     -     -    - /run/docker/netns/43a0f6dd8034
nsfs               -     -     -    - /run/docker/netns/9e2e1b56b0de
overlay            -     -     -    - /var/lib/docker/overlay2/71d932f5ea853341431835774f3ecd4d7ab909020fdef3343048fcdf75401ebc/merged
shm                -     -     -    - /var/lib/docker/containers/2aa2003301c5e4e63182376b1bce08e34188835c59794214070b6cc6a576e8e7/mounts/shm
nsfs               -     -     -    - /run/docker/netns/9eb16a7792ab
tracefs            -     -     -    - /sys/kernel/debug/tracing

du -shc /* | sort -h


3,9M    /lib32
11M /run
13M /bin
13M /sbin
16M /etc
161M    /root
214M    /boot
761M    /lib
5,4G    /usr
16G /home
17G /snap
28G /var
66G total

The key part was "temp", /tmp would appear to be on / not a space in its own right. Ergo, its full — BugFinder, Feb 18 '19 at 11:43
As quick workaround You can set the environment variable TMPDIR to a directory on the home partition. — Daniel Jour, Feb 18 '19 at 14:47

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 18 '19 at 10:15

Well, look at the list. The essential partitions you have are these two:

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/nvme0n1p7   34G   32G     0 100% /
/dev/nvme0n1p9  173G   16G  149G  10% /home

I.e., you have a separate /home of ~170 GB, but everything else (including /var) is in /, and that's only 34 GB.

Repartitioning an installed system is likely to be hard (unless you were using LVM, which you aren't), but you could try and see if you have some large data sets that could be moved to /home, like those images. You can, also, run symlinks from /var/whatever to e.g. /home/var/whatever, (or a similar bind mount) so that the data is still visible in the expected place under /var.

Thought so myself, I should move docker images probably, thx — Glasnhost, Feb 18 '19 at 10:19

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 18 '19 at 10:13

1

Your root file system is full and so is your temp directory. A lot of scripts and programs require some space for working files, even lock files. When /tmp is unwriteable bad things happen.

answered Feb 18 '19 at 10:13

blabla_trace

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Ubuntu: bash: cannot create temp file for here-document: No space left on device

2 Answers2