I looked through the mailing list archive for an answer to this, but I can't find a way around this problem. I have a table with about 225,000 records. I kept getting an out of disk space error when running this query: mysql> select count(*),state from import_talents group by state; ERROR 3: Error writing file '/tmp/MYRuTInF' (Errcode: 28) Other people with this problem have been told to redirect their TMPDIR to another location. The /tmp is mounted on /: [root@www /]# df -a Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/hda1 743466 526930 216536 71% / none 0 0 0 - /proc /dev/hda3 198601 43943 154658 22% /var /dev/hda4 6901425 849752 6051673 12% /home none 0 0 0 - /dev/pts My /home directory has about 6G, so I created a directory under there called /home/tempspace and chmod that directory 777. I changed /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysql to point the TMPDIR to this directory. Stop and Start mysql: mysql> show variables; +----------------------------+---------------------------+ | Variable_name | Value | +----------------------------+---------------------------+ | back_log | 5 | | connect_timeout | 5 | | basedir | / | | datadir | /var/lib/mysql/ | | delayed_insert_limit | 100 | | delayed_insert_timeout | 300 | | delayed_queue_size | 1000 | | join_buffer | 131072 | | flush_time | 0 | | key_buffer | 8388600 | | language | /usr/share/mysql/english/ | | log | OFF | | log_update | OFF | | long_query_time | 10 | | low_priority_updates | OFF | | max_allowed_packet | 1048576 | | max_connections | 100 | | max_connect_errors | 10 | | max_delayed_insert_threads | 20 | | max_join_size | 4294967295 | | max_sort_length | 1024 | | max_write_lock_count | 4294967295 | | net_buffer_length | 16384 | | pid_file | /var/lib/mysql/mysqld.pid | | port | 3306 | | protocol_version | 10 | | record_buffer | 131072 | | skip_locking | ON | | skip_networking | OFF | | socket | /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock | | sort_buffer | 2097144 | | table_cache | 64 | | thread_stack | 65536 | | tmp_table_size | 1048576 | | tmpdir | /home/tempspace/ | | version | 3.22.32 | | wait_timeout | 28800 | +----------------------------+---------------------------+ 37 rows in set (0.00 sec) Run the query again: mysql> select count(*),state from import_talents group by state; ERROR 3: Error writing file '/home/tempspace/MYfZExbS' (Errcode: 122) Error 122 tells me that the USER LIMIT has been reached. (I'm on a Redhat Linux system). Well, let's check what the limit is: [root@www]$ ulimit unlimited Maybe the mysql has a limit? [root@www /]# su mysql [mysql@www /]$ ulimit unlimited Does anyone have a suggestion about what I'm doing wrong? This is a two-pronged "I'm a Linux Newbie"/"Please rescue me from my ignorance" type of question. Thank you, Richard [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before posting, please check: http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php