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Deleted inode referenced ext4 | Resolved

According to our experts, the error message “deleted inode referenced” usually occurs in relation to the ext4 file system on a Linux-based operating system.

In fact, this error lets us know that an inode has been deleted, but some process or application is still referencing it.

This error may occur due to any one of these reasons:

• If a process has an open file handle to a file that is later deleted, the file system keeps the inode alive until all processes close their handles. As long as a process keeps the file open, the file system will not remove the inode and its disk blocks.
• File systems rely on buffer caches to improve I/O performance. In case data is still present in the buffer cache associated with the deleted inode, the file system will not release the inode until the data is flushed to disk.
• If a process opens a file but does not close the file descriptor before the file is deleted, the deleted inode will still be referenced until the file descriptor is closed.
• Certain background processes may still reference the deleted inode, preventing its removal from the file system.

Troubleshooting Tips

• First, we can use tools like lsof to identify the processes that have open file handles to the deleted inode.
• Next, our experts recommend restarting the processes that are holding open file handles to the deleted inode. This allows the file system to release the inode and disk blocks.
• If the error is due to unflushed buffers, we can flush the buffer cache to resolve the issue.
• Then, we can run a file system check to identify and repair any file system issues.
• In some cases, the error could be due to a bug in the software. We can fix this by keeping the system and software up to date with the latest patches and updates.

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Conclusion

In summary, our Support Techs demonstrated how to fix the Deleted inode referenced ext4 error.