MySQL: Can't create/write to file '/tmp/#sql_3c6_0.MYI' (Errcode: 2) - What does it even mean?

Question

For some reason my production DB decided to spew out this message. All application calls fail to the DB with the error:

PreparedStatementCallback; SQL [ /*lo         


        

Answer 1

Often this means your /tmp partition has run out of space and the file can't be created, or for whatever reason the mysqld process cannot write to that directory because of permission problems. Sometimes this is the case when selinux rains on your parade.

Any operation that requites a "temp file" will go into the /tmp directory by default. The name you're seeing is just some internal random name.