Yum is failing with the error "TypeError: Can not create providesname index: database or disk is full"

Issue

• Yum fails with the following error:

  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/yum", line 29, in 
      yummain.user_main(sys.argv[1:], exit_code=True)
  File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 370, in user_main
      errcode = main(args)
  File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 179, in main
      result, resultmsgs = base.doCommands()
  File "/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py", line 573, in doCommands
      return self.yum_cli_commands[self.basecmd].doCommand(self, self.basecmd, self.extcmds)
  File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yumcommands.py", line 659, in doCommand
      repoid=repoid)
  File "/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py", line 1400, in returnPkgLists
      ignore_case=True, repoid=repoid)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 2971, in doPackageLists
      avail = self.pkgSack.returnNewestByNameArch(patterns=patterns,
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 1074, in 
      pkgSack = property(fget=lambda self: self._getSacks(),
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 778, in _getSacks
      self.repos.populateSack(which=repos)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/repos.py", line 386, in populateSack
      sack.populate(repo, mdtype, callback, cacheonly)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 263, in populate
      dobj = repo_cache_function(xml, csum)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/sqlitecachec.py", line 46, in getPrimary
      self.repoid))
  TypeError: Can not create providesname index: database or disk is full
  

• Yum complains that disk is full, even though there is enough space in /var/lib and /var/cache and there is no fsize ulimit set.