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NFS: Value too large to be stored in data type

Troubleshooting


Problem

Programs may fail to work on files and directories in NFS mounts.

Symptom

When running commands on files and directories in an NFS mount, they may fail with the error "Value too large to be stored in data type" (errno 127, EOVERFLOW).

Cause

NFS will sometimes assign inode numbers larger than can be stored in a 32-bit field.  When this happens, calls such as open, opendir, etc., will return EOVERFLOW.  This causes various commands, such as ls, to fail.

Resolving The Problem

This issue was resolved in AIX commands with IV30274.  However, third-party programs, such as an open source ls command, may still fail with this error.  Such programs must be compiled with the _LARGE_FILES C macro defined so that the program uses 64-bit filesystem structures and calls instead of the 32-bit versions.  If this is not possible, use the AIX versions of the commands instead by placing /usr/bin and /usr/sbin in front of (for example) /opt/freeware/bin in the PATH.

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Document Information

Modified date:
06 August 2018

UID

ibm10720083