# SemLock / No space left on device

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/semlock-no-space-left-on-device/23508>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [January 19, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/semlock-no-space-left-on-device/23508 "2017-01-19T20:29:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![David\_Blackburn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@David\_Blackburn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/David_Blackburn)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/semlock-no-space-left-on-device/23508/1 "2017-01-19T20:29:52Z")

</div>

This is not a Ansible problem but its stopping me from using Ansible on my Mac, if I reboot the system the problem goes away for about a day.

I am unable to find much information about this problem this is the most relevant information I could find. [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28788319/no-space-left-on-device-when-creating-semaphore](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28788319/no-space-left-on-device-when-creating-semaphore)

Any help would be great!

**The error I get from Ansible is…**

**ansible-playbook playbook.yml -vvv**

Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file

[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available

ERROR! Unexpected Exception: [Errno 28] No space left on device

the full traceback was:

Traceback (most recent call last):

File “/usr/local/bin/ansible-playbook”, line 103, in

exit\_code = cli.run()

File “/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/ansible/cli/playbook.py”, line 154, in run

pbex = PlaybookExecutor(playbooks=self.args, inventory=inventory, variable\_manager=variable\_manager, loader=loader, options=self.options, passwords=passwords)

File “/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/ansible/executor/playbook\_executor.py”, line 59, in **init**

self.\_tqm = TaskQueueManager(inventory=inventory, variable\_manager=variable\_manager, loader=loader, options=options, passwords=self.passwords)

File “/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/ansible/executor/task\_queue\_manager.py”, line 101, in **init**

self.\_final\_q = multiprocessing.Queue()

File “/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/multiprocessing/ **init**.py”, line 218, in Queue

return Queue(maxsize)

File “/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/multiprocessing/queues.py”, line 63, in **init**

self.\_rlock = Lock()

File “/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/multiprocessing/synchronize.py”, line 147, in **init**

SemLock. **init** (self, SEMAPHORE, 1, 1)

File “/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/multiprocessing/synchronize.py”, line 75, in **init**

sl = self.\_semlock = \_multiprocessing.SemLock(kind, value, maxvalue)

OSError: [Errno 28] No space left on device

**Running the following using any version of Python returns the following error.**

**\>python -c ‘import multiprocessing; multiprocessing.Semaphore()’**

Traceback (most recent call last):

File “”, line 1, in

File “/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/multiprocessing/ **init**.py”, line 197, in Semaphore

return Semaphore(value)

File “/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/multiprocessing/synchronize.py”, line 111, in **init**

SemLock. **init** (self, SEMAPHORE, value, SEM\_VALUE\_MAX)

File “/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/multiprocessing/synchronize.py”, line 75, in **init**

sl = self.\_semlock = \_multiprocessing.SemLock(kind, value, maxvalue)

OSError: [Errno 28] No space left on device

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![David\_Blackburn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@David\_Blackburn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/David_Blackburn)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 3:13am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/semlock-no-space-left-on-device/23508/2 "2017-01-23T03:13:12Z")

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I partially found the answer to my problem and hopefully the answer will be of use to somebody. The problem is I am running out of semaphores and I was using at the system V tools to view semaphores and not the POSIX command set.

Unfortunately I am still unable to figure out what is using the semaphores and the usage continues to grow the default is 1000 and I have had to raise the value twice.

sudo sysctl -w kern.posix.sem.max=20000sudo zprint semaphores

Dave