📖 ~1 min read
Table of contents
Symptom & Impact
Root filesystem reaches critical capacity, causing application failures and inability to install updates.
Environment & Reproduction
Users observe low-space warnings, logins slow down, and package operations abort due to insufficient disk.
Root Cause Analysis
Large logs, stale package cache, crash dumps, and orphaned data directories often drive unexpected growth.
Quick Triage
Check filesystem utilization and identify largest directories before deleting production-critical data.
Step-by-Step Diagnosis
Measure directory usage recursively and review log growth patterns to pinpoint abnormal consumers.
Solution – Primary Fix
Clean package caches, rotate or archive oversized logs, and remove unused kernels and obsolete artifacts.
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Solution – Alternative Approaches
Relocate bulky datasets to dedicated volumes and enforce quotas for growth-prone application paths.
Verification & Acceptance Criteria
Free space returns above operational threshold and normal updates complete successfully.
Rollback Plan
Restore deleted files from backups if business data was removed during emergency cleanup.
Prevention & Hardening
Implement log retention policies, monitor capacity trends, and schedule recurring housekeeping jobs.
Related Errors & Cross-Refs
Frequently linked to journal overgrowth, failed updates, and database write interruptions.
Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
View all Ubuntu 16.04 LTS tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →
Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.
References & Further Reading
See Ubuntu storage management docs and Linux log rotation best practices.
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