Divi WordPress Theme Created 70,000 inodes on my server

I was tracking down some strange inode action on a shared hosting provider today and discovered that Divi WordPress theme created 70,000+ unnecessary inodes.

As you can see in the inode count in the above screengrab, Divi theme created over 70,000 inodes in a temp folder above the web root. For comparison, this WordPress install, including Divi theme and all the plugins, used only 20,900 inodes.

The solution was simple and was provided quickly by Divi support: Upgrade Divi and delete the temp files. Done and Done.

Problem solved.

What is an “inode”?

“inodes” are one of those tech terms that only bother techies in charge of managing shared website hosting environments. As far as I can tell, it’s an invention of the mega-corporate-conglomerates that host most of the world’s websites – a metric whose sole purpose is to force mom-and-pop website owners to shell out more money to reach the next “inode” tier. This is made evident by the fact that the “inode” term/metric isn’t used on “premium” web hosts – it’s only seen on the Big shared hosting providers. It’s a metric that I’m constantly measuring progress against, and it’s a big pain in the neck.

In a nutshell, an “inode” is a file. WordPress, in particular, produces LOTS of inodes. WordPress core ships with over 5,000 inodes and that’s before adding plugins and your theme. A basic WP install, including common plugins/theme, lands at around 25,000 inodes, but it’s very common to see WordPress installs without a lot of bells-and-whistles landing in the 40-60k range once security and speed plugins/optimizations are in place.