Guard: No space left on device - Failed to watch ...

Created on 22 Jan 2012  ·  18Comments  ·  Source: guard/guard

Guardfile:

guard 'rspec', :version => 2, :cli => "--color --format nested" do
  watch(%r{^spec/.+_spec\.rb})
  watch(%r{^lib/(.+)\.rb})     { |m| "spec/#{m[1]}_spec.rb" }
end

Gemfile

group :development do
  gem 'guard'
  gem 'libnotify'
  gem 'guard-rspec'
  gem 'rb-readline'
end

Environment

  • Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64
  • ruby 1.8.7 (2011-06-30 patchlevel 352)

    Error

When I run guard start I see libnotify message with report and then guard crashes with next error:

//home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/watcher.rb:80:in `initialize': No space left on device - Failed to watch "/home/blake/dev/my/project_child/.git/objects/78": The user limit on the total number of inotify watches was reached or the kernel failed to allocate a needed resource. (Errno::ENOSPC)
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:190:in `new'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:190:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:199:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:195:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:192:in `each'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:192:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:195:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:192:in `each'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:192:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:195:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:192:in `each'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:192:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/guard/listeners/linux.rb:58:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/guard/listener.rb:100:in `start'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/guard/listeners/linux.rb:20:in `start'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/guard.rb:203:in `start'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/guard/cli.rb:75:in `start'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/thor-0.14.6/lib/thor/task.rb:22:in `send'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/thor-0.14.6/lib/thor/task.rb:22:in `run'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/thor-0.14.6/lib/thor/invocation.rb:118:in `invoke_task'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/thor-0.14.6/lib/thor.rb:263:in `dispatch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/thor-0.14.6/lib/thor/base.rb:389:in `start'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/bin/guard:6
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/bin/guard:19:in `load'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/bin/guard:19home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/watcher.rb:80:in `initialize': No space left on device - Failed to watch "/home/blake/dev/my/project_child/.git/objects/78": The user limit on the total number of inotify watches was reached or the kernel failed to allocate a needed resource. (Errno::ENOSPC)
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:190:in `new'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:190:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:199:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:195:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:192:in `each'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:192:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:195:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:192:in `each'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:192:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:195:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:192:in `each'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/vendor/linux/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:192:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/guard/listeners/linux.rb:58:in `watch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/guard/listener.rb:100:in `start'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/guard/listeners/linux.rb:20:in `start'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/guard.rb:203:in `start'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/lib/guard/cli.rb:75:in `start'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/thor-0.14.6/lib/thor/task.rb:22:in `send'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/thor-0.14.6/lib/thor/task.rb:22:in `run'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/thor-0.14.6/lib/thor/invocation.rb:118:in `invoke_task'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/thor-0.14.6/lib/thor.rb:263:in `dispatch'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/thor-0.14.6/lib/thor/base.rb:389:in `start'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/gems/guard-1.0.0/bin/guard:6
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/bin/guard:19:in `load'
    from /home/blake/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p352@project/bin/guard:19

Does it try to watch git files? Do I miss something?

picture greyblake

Most helpful comment

Try increasing the max_user_watches for inotify. It is default set to 8192. I bumped it to 100k and things are ok. 

cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches

echo 100000|sudo tee /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches

To increase max_user_watches at boot, edit /etc/sysctl.conf and add fs.inotify.max_user_watches=100000 or fix fs.inotify.max_user_watches= to 100000.

Don't thank me, thank this guy -> http://blog.sorah.jp/2012/01/24/inotify-limitation

picture jhirn on 30 Apr 2012
👍5 ❤2 🎉1

All 18 comments

This could arrive when there's too much files to watch in your folder, you can ignore some path with ignore_paths method (more info about it in the README)

thibaudgg picture thibaudgg on 22 Jan 2012

I've tried to use ignore_paths '.git' it had no effect.

I've got only 93 files in the project:

find . | grep -v '.git'  | wc -l
93
greyblake picture greyblake on 22 Jan 2012

That's weird, try to ask lib notify guys.

thibaudgg picture thibaudgg on 22 Jan 2012

Just FYI, .git is already ignored by default: https://github.com/guard/guard/blob/master/lib/guard/listener.rb#L19

rymai picture rymai on 22 Jan 2012

Any news?

thibaudgg picture thibaudgg on 28 Jan 2012

Nope.Gonna try to run it on another machine.

greyblake picture greyblake on 28 Jan 2012

Hm.. At my work, on another PC same project runs well with guard.. On both PCs I use Debian Squeeze.

greyblake picture greyblake on 30 Jan 2012

I am having a similar problem with a large directory that I have ignored using ignore_paths. It insists on complaining that it has 'Failed to Watch" some file in the ignored directory.

thobruk picture thobruk on 7 Feb 2012

Paths are only ignored at the Guard level but not with rb-inotify so using ignore_paths isn't useful here. To solve your issue I think we need an ignore_paths option in rb-inotify. @nex3 do you think it would be possible?

thibaudgg picture thibaudgg on 8 Feb 2012

There doesn't seem to be any way to selectively ignore paths in the underlying inotify interface.

nex3 picture nex3 on 8 Feb 2012

I took the monster directory out of the project tree for now. Thanks for trying.

thobruk picture thobruk on 17 Feb 2012

I removed .git directory and it works for me too. But there might be something better:)

greyblake picture greyblake on 18 Feb 2012

Try increasing the max_user_watches for inotify. It is default set to 8192. I bumped it to 100k and things are ok. 

cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches

echo 100000|sudo tee /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches

To increase max_user_watches at boot, edit /etc/sysctl.conf and add fs.inotify.max_user_watches=100000 or fix fs.inotify.max_user_watches= to 100000.

Don't thank me, thank this guy -> http://blog.sorah.jp/2012/01/24/inotify-limitation

jhirn picture jhirn on 30 Apr 2012
👍5 ❤2 🎉1

@jhirn Nice link, thanks to share it! /cc @Maher4Ever

thibaudgg picture thibaudgg on 30 Apr 2012

@thibaudgg I think it's indeed a good idea to catch this exception and show a link to a (wiki page?) or something on the Listen repo to help users. Shall we add the first wiki page to Listen ? :)

Maher4Ever picture Maher4Ever on 1 May 2012

Do it, but be sure to credit github.com/sorah and not me. =)

jhirn picture jhirn on 1 May 2012

@Maher4Ever yeah +1 for a link to our first Listen wiki page!

thibaudgg picture thibaudgg on 2 May 2012

@jhirn, good find!
@thibaudgg, thanks for the support.

greyblake picture greyblake on 30 May 2012
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