tmp folder 100 percent full in linux

tmp folder 100 percent full in Linux

Applies to:

I am using: 

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5

Oracle Application Install - Version: 11.5.10.0 and later

Description:

I recently came across a problem where the /tmp folder was listed as 100% full:

[root@prodapps01 ~]# df -h

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/cciss/c0d0p2     9.7G  4.2G  5.1G  46% /

/dev/cciss/c0d0p8     2.0G  152M  1.7G   9% /home

/dev/cciss/c0d0p7     3.9G  3.9G  0M  100% /tmp

/dev/cciss/c0d0p6     7.8G  334M  7.1G   5% /var

/dev/cciss/c0d0p5      12G  3.2G  7.9G  29% /usr

/dev/cciss/c0d0p1     494M   32M  437M   7% /boot

Strangely, there were no files in the /tmp folder. This is how it happens. If you delete files from a folder and they still show up when you check a df -h disk status, then the deleted files are linked to currently running processes. You will have to stop or restart the processes that had those files open in the first place.

lsof | grep /tmp

Output of the above command shown below:

httpd  30027    oracle   57u      REG      104,7 24803361  40 /tmp/filemQMbGZ.TMP (deleted)

httpd  30033    oracle   75u      REG      104,7   773833    44 /tmp/file7s8VAe.TMP (deleted)

httpd  30962    oracle   71u      REG      104,7    72391     88 /tmp/filewzh7U1.TMP (deleted)

Solution:

You will need to kill the httpd processes it shows that are linked to the deleted files which will fix the problem.

To kill the httpd processes

killall -e -9 httpd

Or

service httpd restart

[root@prodapps01 ~]# df -h

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/cciss/c0d0p2     9.7G  4.2G  5.1G  46% /

/dev/cciss/c0d0p8     2.0G  152M  1.7G   9% /home

/dev/cciss/c0d0p7     3.9G  420M  3.3G  12% /tmp

/dev/cciss/c0d0p6     7.8G  334M  7.1G   5% /var

/dev/cciss/c0d0p5      12G  3.2G  7.9G  29% /usr

/dev/cciss/c0d0p1     494M   32M  437M   7% /boot

Your comments, especially which will help us improve the functionality, will be greatly appreciated :)