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Too many Links?

+/- details
User denny_snyder
Incident Number 32318
Date 2002/09/20 01:56
Status Incident closed
Paid No

Product 8.2
Architecture x86_32
Scope Administration

Products owned
Community Support question - to convert into a paid question, click here

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Username : Date : Action : Comments [ close all ]    
 
denny_snyder : 20/09/02 01:56 AM : Incident created
-   Hello all. I currently have 41K user accounts on a huge server using /etc/passwd with home directories. Today I can't create any new users. It gives me "unable to create /home/username directory" - when I su and go to /home and do a "mkdir whatever" I get "too many links." Have I hit a limitation in number of directories/files within a directory? Is there a way to overcome this? Can I do anything via sysctl or editing something in /proc to raise this limit? I'm stuck hard if I can't..... Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 
denny_snyder : 20/09/02 02:54 AM : More info provided
-   I forgot to add..... ext3 file system mounted with defaults running 2.4.9-31 (or thereabouts)..... haved searched all over the web and can find no documentation on this error. I'll be digging into kernel recompile parameters next....

 
kbielefe : 20/09/02 07:18 AM : Reply received
-   The quick fix is put new home directories in a different directory (ie
/home2). Edit the /etc/passwd file to do this. I will do some research and
get back to you soon with a better solution.

--Karl

 
kbielefe : 20/09/02 07:45 AM : Reply received
-   OK, the kernel file you want to edit is
/usr/src/linux/include/linux/ext3_fs.h. There is a line in there like #define
EXT3_LINK_MAX 32000. Increasing that will allow you to create more files
after recompiling your kernel. However, I must warn you that the limit was
probably set for a good reason. 32000 is pretty close to 32768, which is 15
bits. It may be that there are only 15 bits allocated for the link numbers.
Or some other reason for this limitation. This can only be verified by a
thorough inspection of the /usr/src/linux/fs/ext3 source. You may want to
consider something similar to my 'temporary' solution as a permanent one.

 
 
denny_snyder : 20/09/02 06:10 PM : Incident closed
-   Thanks a bunch! I've changed the /etc/default/useradd file for home directory location for new users and am now investigating apache's documentation for UserDir parameters for 2 different home directory locations. I'm still worried about my /var/spool/mail since I still use mbox style mail system.... oh well. ;)

Thanks again!



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