CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-004) — Question 14

A technical support engineer receives a ticket from a user who is trying to create a 1KB file in the /tmp directory and is getting the following error: No space left on device. The support engineer checks the /tmp directory, and it has 20GB of free space.
Which of the following BEST describes a possible cause for this error?

Answer options

• A. The /tmp directory is not mounted.
• B. The filesystem is formatted with a 4MB block size.
• C. the filesystem ran out of inodes.
• D. The /tmp directory has been set with an immutable attribute.

Correct answer: C

Explanation

The correct answer is C because running out of inodes means that while there may be space available, there are no available inodes to create new files. Options A and D are incorrect as they would prevent access to the directory entirely, and option B is less likely since a 4MB block size would not typically cause this specific issue.