How to determine the inode count?

Question

This article explains what an inode count is, how to determine it for your account, and how to reduce it if necessary.

What is the inode count?
An inode is simply an internal data structure that Linux uses to store information about a filesystem object. The inode count equals the total number of files and directories in a user account or on a disk. Each file or directory adds 1 to the inode count.

To maintain the reliability and performance of Webhost.UK.Net servers for all users, the inode count is limited to 50,000 for shared hosting accounts. If the inode count for your account reaches this limit, you must decrease the count by removing some files or directories.

Determining the inode count:
If your account is violating our allowed inode usage limit, you will be notified by our technical support team with the details about inode usage for your account.

Reducing the inode count:
If the inode count for your account is too high, you should try to determine the cause as soon as possible so you can bring it back down to an acceptable level. Some common causes of high inode usage are:

* Unwnated data uploaded to the account such as images, files etc.
* Cron jobs or other automated processes: Automated processes, such as cron jobs, can create a large number of files very quickly. Either modify or disable the cron job, or delete the unwanted files.
* E-mail messages: Old messages in the Trash and Sent folders of users' mailboxes often accumulate. You can download these messages to your local computer (if you want to save them), and then delete them on the server.