Usage:

We run test build jobs that login to our AIX machines and create many small files in /tmp. After these jobs complete, they delete their temporary files that they have created.

Issue:

After approximately a week /tmp appears to become full. Issuing the command “df –g /tmp” shows that there is free disk space (almost the entire disk is free) however the “%Iused” displays 99%, which prevents us from writing any new files to /tmp.

Workaround:
The only solution I’ve been able to find, is to reboot all of our AIX machines, once a week.

Environment:

Operating System Model Series CPU Type
AIX 5300-07-03-0811 JS20 Blade PowerPC_970FX
AIX 5200-08-00 JS21 Blade PowerPC_970MP
AIX 5200-08-00 JS21 Blade PowerPC_970MP
AIX 6100-01-01-0823 JS21 Blade PowerPC_970MP
AIX 5200-08-CSP-0000 JS21 Blade PowerPC_970MP
AIX 6100-01-01-0823 JS22 Blade PowerPC_POWER6
AIX 6100-01-01-0823 JS22 Blade PowerPC_POWER6
AIX 5300-07-00-0000 JS22 Blade PowerPC_POWER6
AIX 6100-01-01-0823 JS22 Blade PowerPC_POWER6
AIX 6100-01-01-0823 JS22 Blade PowerPC_POWER6
AIX 6100-01-01-0823 JS22 Blade PowerPC_POWER6
AIX 6100-01-01-0823 JS22 Blade PowerPC_POWER6
AIX 5200-08-CSP-0000 eServer pSeries PowerPC_POWER4
AIX 6100-01-01-0823 JS22 Blade PowerPC_POWER6
AIX 5200-08-01-0000 eServer pSeries PowerPC_POWER4
AIX 5200-09-04-0000 JS21 Blade PowerPC_970FX
AIX 5300-04-03 JS21 Blade PowerPC_970FX
AIX 5300-06-03-0732 eServer p5 PowerPC_POWER5
AIX 5300-04-03 eServer p5 PowerPC_POWER5
AIX 5300-04-CSP-0000 JS21 Blade PowerPC_970FX


More Information:

When I run the command “ncheck -i /tmp” when there are no files in /tmp:

# pwd
/tmp
# ls -la
total 216
drwxrwsrwt 2 sys sys 102912 Nov 02 08:12 .
drwxr-xr-x 26 root system 4096 Nov 02 07:51 ..
#

ncheck will respond with over 25000 lines of files, which looks like this:

664822 /bld_17450_aix_ppc-64/test/java/jre/bin/shared_test/copyright.o
664832 /bld_17450_aix_ppc-64/test/java/jre/bin/shared_test/jvmti/.
664808 /bld_17450_aix_ppc-64/test/java/jre/bin/shared_test/main.c
664809 /bld_17450_aix_ppc-64/test/java/jre/bin/shared_test/main.h
664842 /bld_17450_aix_ppc-64/test/java/jre/bin/shared_test/main.o
664810 /bld_17450_aix_ppc-64/test/java/jre/bin/shared_test/makefile

These are in fact files/folders which our test jobs created and then deleted.

Is my issue related to some feature of AIX that allows for file recovery?
If so, is there a way to disable this on /tmp?

Or is there a way to release these used i-nodes, without rebooting the system?