CentOS Insufficient space in download directory /var/cache/yum/base/packages

Question

I was trying to yum install libpcap when I got

 Error Downloading Packages:
  14:libpcap-0.9.4-15.el5.i386: Insufficient space in download directory /var/cache/yum/base/packages
    * free   0 
    * needed 108 k

Here's output from df -h:

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1              20G   19G     0 100% /
/dev/sda3             202G   38G  154G  20% /home
tmpfs                 1.5G     0  1.5G   0% /dev/shm

And fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30394 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        2611    20972826   83  Linux
/dev/sda2            2612        3251     5140800   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3            3252       30394   218026147+  83  Linux

I have launched yum clean all with no success clearing up space.

Please advise. Thanks.

Solution 1

Your / mount is full.

First, verify /tmp is empty.

Second, empty the contents of /var/cache/yum/base/packages. _{^{(Or consider just moving the contents while verifying the below procedure on your system.)}}

Then try bind mounting space from /home to /var/cache/yum/base/packages thusly:

mount --bind /home/yum /var/cache/yum/base/packages

Then add an entry at the bottom of your /etc/fstab like this:

/home/yum /var/cache/yum/base/packages none,rw bind 0 0

Once the bind mounts are setup, running a df -h will show /var/cache/yum/base/packages to have boku space. Then run yum and verify everything is copasetic.

Solution 2

I do agree that you need to clean some stuff up in /, but have you tried changing

cachedir=/var/cache/yum

in /etc/yum.conf