150k inodes for 2 c5 installs seems extremely excessive. Is it possible you have a bunch of updates directories on your 5.6 install that may be eating up a few? Maybe a ton of tmp / cache files that are gumming up the works? Also, if cron jobs aren't properly piped they can often create files whenever they run that can contribute to your inode count.

That said, C5's footprint is substantially larger from a file count perspective than some other frameworks. A "quick" check on a couple small wordpress sites shows an inode count of a mere 4.2k files. On the other hand, this site doesn't have any caching enabled, and I can process 10x more requests per second on the c5 sites as I can on a wordpress site. FYI an install 5.6 c5 site comes in at around 27k inodes with cache enabled (10k of these files reside in the /files/tmp directory). (This makes me think that many of your inode issues may be resolved by clearing out the tmp directory?)

For another comparison, a small site running on the Yii framework clocks in at just over 5k inodes. But again, no caching is used on this site.

Yes, when I have a closer look at it, there is lots of junk on that server but it's pretty typical of some client sites especially if they have been doing a lot of image manipulation which adds many versions of images under /files and /files/thumbnails. I have seen others have problems with tmp files but I have not witnessed that on my servers. Often I will go into a server and find 5 complete /concrete folders under the /updates folder which can lead to a problem.

On a virgin 5.7 install, I get over 13,000 files which is double the number on a virgin 5.6 install. Still not close to the 150,000 limit but my fear comes when we try to 'upgrade' their site to 5.7. I will probably stick a new 5.7 install in a sub-directory on their server so that the client can follow along and by the time I build out the new site I might have a lot of duplicate files as I copy content into the new site.

Just something to think about and be aware of.

I am needing help here -- i have reached the inode max of 100,00 and can't find anyway to reduce it. my hosting server is MacHighway and the problem seems to be with concrete5. is it safe to delete the /builder file via FTP? i have a couple of large databases that might take me to 50,00 -- but i am sure there is a lot of junk - old versions that can't be found to delete? i am not a developer - just a small time user, and maybe i will have to seek a professional - but thought this was worth a try. Thanks, ~wanda

Have you updated concrete5 through the dashboard or are you still on the original version that you installed?

i have updated a couple of times i think - originally created in 2011 - now running v. 5.603
i went thru Dashboard and ran the Extreme CLEAN add on which helped, but not enough.
and, MacHighway seems to think if i could remove public_html/builder -- i would be in good shape??? IS IT SAFE to do that??

Thanks Mike... your reply added to my sparse knowledge bank! Problem is being resolved.

Databases are typically very low inode usages. Many hosts don't even count the db's in the inode usage.

this /builder folder you speak of isn't a part of the concrete5 stock installation (last I knew) but is probably something that an auto installer on your hosting account used. Hard to say more without taking a look.

I'd be willing to help you out in more detail if you shoot me a PM and we can take a look at what you've got.

- Joe

Joe.. you are dealing with a newbie here -- what's a PM??

my website is: wandataylor.info don't know why they tacked "/builder" on that??

this is what my file manager looks like:
public_html
builder
cgi-bin
Reunions.............this is the folder i upload frequently with my database updates.

i'll send you whatever you need... thanks

I measured 8667 inodes for a fresh 5.7.2 install using .... find . -printf '%i\n' | sort -u | wc -l which gives me around 20 to 25 sites on my Siteground shared account.

I see a cloud server on the horizon :)

By the time a well-edited, working website adds all the image versions that are created and stored under 'application/files' you will not get anywhere near your 20-25 sites (IMHO). Also, on my SiteGround accounts, I get stern warnings when I hit over 80% of my 200,000 inode quota.