Out of Disk Space in /var Causes Update Failures

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Updates and services fail because /var lacks free space for package and log files.

Environment & Reproduction

Ubuntu 18.04 systems with heavy logging, cache growth, or limited partition sizing.

Root Cause Analysis

Accumulated logs, apt cache, and orphaned artifacts consume available filesystem capacity.

Quick Triage

Measure filesystem usage and identify largest directories under /var.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Use disk usage analysis, inspect journals, cache folders, and application log growth.

Solution – Primary Fix

Purge caches, rotate logs, clean old kernels, and expand volume if needed.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Move high-growth paths to separate storage and enforce retention limits.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Sufficient free space is restored and package operations complete successfully.

Rollback Plan

Restore deleted artifacts from backup if critical data was removed accidentally.

Prevention & Hardening

Configure log retention policies and disk usage alerts with actionable thresholds.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

No space left on device, write failures, and apt unpack errors.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

View all Ubuntu 18.04 LTS tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

Ubuntu storage and log management guidance for long-running servers.