freebsd-update install no space left on device

From: Robert <robert_at_webtent.org>
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2025 00:04:34 UTC
I was doing an upgrade from 14.2 to 14.3 and started receiving a long 
list of 'no space left on device' after the reboot and running install 
the second time. It did finish afterward, see below. I didn't expect 
this as I did what I thought was a mirror system just before and didn't 
have the issue. Here is what the system looked like afterward...

> root@monitor1:/usr/local/etc # df -h
> Filesystem                         Size    Used   Avail Capacity  
> Mounted on
> zroot/ROOT/default                 2.0G    1.9G     70M    97%   /
> devfs                              1.0K      0B    1.0K     0%   /dev
> /dev/gpt/efiboot0                  260M    1.3M    259M     1%   /boot/efi
> zroot/tmp                           70M    144K     70M     0%   /tmp
> zroot/usr/ports                     70M     96K     70M     0%   
> /usr/ports
> zroot/var/tmp                       70M     96K     70M     0%   /var/tmp
> zroot/var/audit                     70M     96K     70M     0%   
> /var/audit
> zroot/var/crash                     70M     96K     70M     0%   
> /var/crash
> zroot/var/log                       92M     22M     70M    24%   /var/log
> zroot                               70M     96K     70M     0%   /zroot
> zroot/home                          70M     96K     70M     0%   /home
> zroot/var/mail                      70M    212K     70M     0%   /var/mail
> zroot/home/admin                    70M    156K     70M     0%   
> /home/admin
> zroot/usr/src                       70M     96K     70M     0%   /usr/src

But then I looked at last nights daily run output and found 
the zroot/ROOT/default was 5.7G, and yes, I double checked to make sure 
I was looking at the correct daily run output email...

> Disk status:
> Filesystem            Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
> zroot/ROOT/default    5.7G    4.2G    1.5G    73%    /
> devfs                 1.0K      0B    1.0K     0%    /dev
> /dev/gpt/efiboot0     260M    1.3M    259M     1%    /boot/efi
> zroot/usr/ports       1.5G     96K    1.5G     0%    /usr/ports
> zroot/var/audit       1.5G     96K    1.5G     0%    /var/audit
> zroot/var/crash       1.5G     96K    1.5G     0%    /var/crash
> zroot/var/log         1.5G     22M    1.5G     1%    /var/log
> zroot/home            1.5G     96K    1.5G     0%    /home
> zroot/tmp             1.5G    144K    1.5G     0%    /tmp
> zroot/var/mail        1.5G    212K    1.5G     0%    /var/mail
> zroot/usr/src         1.5G     96K    1.5G     0%    /usr/src
> zroot                 1.5G     96K    1.5G     0%    /zroot
> zroot/var/tmp         1.5G     96K    1.5G     0%    /var/tmp
> zroot/home/admin      1.5G    156K    1.5G     0%    /home/admin

How on earth did the size of zroot/ROOT/default change? More importantly 
at this point, am I going to start seeing any system issues and what is 
the best way to remedy? The zpool is 7.5G...

> root@monitor1:/usr/local/etc # zpool list
> NAME    SIZE  ALLOC   FREE  CKPOINT  EXPANDSZ   FRAG    CAP DEDUP    
> HEALTH  ALTROOT
> zroot  7.50G  7.20G   310M        -         -    84%    95% 1.00x    
> ONLINE  -

This is a VM on a TrueNAS server. The mirror server on a separate host 
shows the same zpool with 89% CAP. These VMs are not that old, they were 
spun up on FreeBSD 14.1. Here is how the freebsd-update install ended...

> install: 
> c34fc2d9bef9bef3a5244a4bcb085e4167b09135c0d5388e79129eaab937a3ca: No 
> such file or directory
> rm: c34fc2d9bef9bef3a5244a4bcb085e4167b09135c0d5388e79129eaab937a3ca: 
> No such file or directory
> /usr/sbin/freebsd-update: cannot create 
> 436480fa5540b23a3d090c53bb19ab30b5290f09364ac9a844dd75c7324dbc87: No 
> space left on device
> install: 
> 436480fa5540b23a3d090c53bb19ab30b5290f09364ac9a844dd75c7324dbc87: No 
> such file or directory
> rm: 436480fa5540b23a3d090c53bb19ab30b5290f09364ac9a844dd75c7324dbc87: 
> No such file or directory
> /usr/sbin/freebsd-update: cannot create 
> b8b57186732467b24bcb1ced083cce181fb70ad4764feed7b6fec2eb3b8693a9: No 
> space left on device
> install: 
> b8b57186732467b24bcb1ced083cce181fb70ad4764feed7b6fec2eb3b8693a9: No 
> such file or directory
> rm: b8b57186732467b24bcb1ced083cce181fb70ad4764feed7b6fec2eb3b8693a9: 
> No such file or directory
> /usr/sbin/freebsd-update: cannot create 
> 4f6891535bc9cc281fb941adfc0d11240dd6dd782f0b973074a954dfa715a57d: No 
> space left on device
> install: 
> 4f6891535bc9cc281fb941adfc0d11240dd6dd782f0b973074a954dfa715a57d: No 
> such file or directory
> rm: 4f6891535bc9cc281fb941adfc0d11240dd6dd782f0b973074a954dfa715a57d: 
> No such file or directory
> chflags: ///usr/lib/libl.a: No such file or directory
> chflags: ///usr/lib/libln.a: No such file or directory
>
> Restarting sshd after upgrade
> Performing sanity check on sshd configuration.
> Stopping sshd.
> Waiting for PIDS: 853.
> Performing sanity check on sshd configuration.
> Starting sshd.
>  done.

--
Robert