In case you are oddly low on space (solution)

[mdp]

You may sometimes receive an error according to which you cannot install new software applications, because "the device is low on space".
That "device" is in fact '/data'.
I just found out yesterday that the device may not always do a clean-up after installing software, and probably this may be revealed by a warning 'rm failed for -f, No such file or directory'.
Fact is, the location '/data/local/tmp/' may still contain the installation packages for past applications (as revealed by a `ll /data/local/tmp/`). That "tmp" stands for "temporary".
Luckily enough, that location is not protected - any user can delete the files. So you can issue an `rm /data/local/tmp/*` to empty that location and release surprising amounts of space (space availability that is reported simply by `df`). Commands such as those indicated can be issued chiefly through `adb` on your desktop computer, or through terminals on the device (like jackpal.androidterm AKA "Terminal Emulator").

(Of course, be careful when using `rm`, the command to delete files. Android is well protected against accidental deletions of system files - and, correctly, only those files...)


Schematically:

df     # check avaliable space for apps. Look at /data
ll /data/local/tmp/    # verify you have junk there
rm /data/local/tmp/*   # remove the junk

Of course, [legal disclaimer here]