Editing Inode (section)

===Potential for inode exhaustion and solutions===

When a file system is created, some file systems allocate a fixed number of inodes.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/filesystems/ext4/overview.html | title=2. High Level Design | author=The kernel development community | access-date=21 May 2023 | website=kernel.org }}</ref> This means that it is possible to run out of inodes on a file system, even if there is free space remaining in the file system.  This situation often arises in use cases where there are many small files, such as on a server storing email messages, because each file, no matter how small, requires its own inode.

Other file systems avoid this limitation by using dynamic inode allocation.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/filesystems/xfs-self-describing-metadata.html#inodes-and-dquots | title=XFS Self Describing Metadata | author=The kernel development community | access-date=21 May 2023 | website=kernel.org }}</ref> Dynamic inode allocation allows a file system to create more inodes as needed instead of relying on a fixed number created at the time of file system creation.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/filesystems/ext4/overview.html#block-and-inode-allocation-policy | title=2.7. Block and Inode Allocation Policy | author=The kernel development community | access-date=21 May 2023 | website=kernel.org }}</ref> This can "grow" the file system by increasing the number of inodes available for new files and directories, thus avoiding the problem of running out of inodes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Vadala |first=Derek |title=Managing RAID on Linux |year=2002 |publisher=O'Reilly Media, Inc. |isbn=9781565927308 |chapter=6. Filesystems}}</ref>