clearing out /tmp safely

Rick Stevens rstevens at vitalstream.com
Sat Mar 27 01:57:02 UTC 2004


Robert wrote:
> Tom 'Needs A Hat' Mitchell wrote:
> 
>> On Fri, Mar 26, 2004 at 11:47:55AM -0600, Robert wrote:
>>
>>> Tom Needs a Hat Mitchell wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Tue, Feb 17, 2004 at 12:49:31AM -0300, Alexandre Strube wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Hello Matt
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> I would like to clean out my /tmp partition as per the tip at 
>>
>>
>> ....
>>
>>>> Cleaning out /tmp /var/tmp by hand should be unnecessary beyond 
>>>> removing the
>>>> occasional big junk file.
>>>>
>>>> See:  /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> to verify that cron.daily was working. It was.
>>> Then I tried executing (as root)
>>>
>>> [root at mavis root]# /usr/sbin/tmpwatch 240 /tmp
>>>
>>> and I *still* have a bunch of old files in /tmp
>>>
>>> [root at mavis root]# find /tmp -ctime +10 | wc -l
>>>    613
>>
>>
>>
>> Are you finding files or directories.
>> I do see a list of empty dirs that make /tmp look untidy.
>> An "rmdir /tmp/* " cleans out only the empty ones.
>>
>>
>>
> There are both directories and files. Here's an example of files:
> 
> [root at mavis root]# ls -l /tmp | grep -v ^d | grep track
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root     296769536 Jan 26 19:06 track-01.img
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          521 Nov 14 11:10 track-01.inf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root     30604268 Nov 14 11:10 track-01.wav
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          292 Jan 26 19:06 track-01.xinf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          504 Nov 14 11:10 track-02.inf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root     34017020 Nov 14 11:10 track-02.wav
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          319 Nov 15 12:25 track-02.xinf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          511 Nov 14 11:10 track-03.inf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root     29741084 Nov 14 11:10 track-03.wav
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          326 Nov 15 12:25 track-03.xinf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          502 Nov 14 11:10 track-04.inf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root     28468652 Nov 14 11:10 track-04.wav
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          317 Nov 15 12:25 track-04.xinf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          493 Nov 14 11:10 track-05.inf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root     38377628 Nov 14 11:10 track-05.wav
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          308 Nov 15 12:25 track-05.xinf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          501 Nov 14 11:10 track-06.inf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root     33325532 Nov 14 11:10 track-06.wav
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          316 Nov 15 12:25 track-06.xinf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          501 Nov 14 11:10 track-07.inf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root     24950060 Nov 14 11:11 track-07.wav
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          316 Nov 15 12:25 track-07.xinf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          511 Nov 14 11:10 track-08.inf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root     29400044 Nov 14 11:11 track-08.wav
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          326 Nov 15 12:25 track-08.xinf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          503 Nov 14 11:10 track-09.inf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root     31368668 Nov 14 11:11 track-09.wav
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          317 Nov 15 12:25 track-09.xinf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          506 Nov 14 11:10 track-10.inf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root     31796732 Nov 14 11:11 track-10.wav
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          320 Nov 15 12:25 track-10.xinf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          504 Nov 14 11:10 track-11.inf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root     13834508 Nov 14 11:11 track-11.wav
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          318 Nov 15 12:25 track-11.xinf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          512 Nov 14 11:10 track-12.inf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root     29364764 Nov 14 11:11 track-12.wav
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          326 Nov 15 12:25 track-12.xinf
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root          297 Jan 26 19:06 track.toc
> [root at mavis root]#
> 
> I'm gonna try something for tonight.  I'll create a new file, chmod it 
> to 666, touch it to have the same date as track-12.wav above and see if 
> that bugger goes away overnight. Like this:
> 
> [root at mavis root]# echo "abcdefghijklmnopqrstetc" > /tmp/zzzA-test-file.txt
> [root at mavis root]# touch /tmp/zzzA-test-file.txt 
> --reference=/tmp/track-12.wav
> [root at mavis root]# chmod 666 /tmp/zzzA*
> [root at mavis root]# ls -l /tmp/zzzA*
> -rw-rw-rw-    1 root     root           24 Nov 14 11:11 
> /tmp/zzzA-test-file.txt
> [root at mavis root]# touch /tmp/zzzA-test-file.txt 
> --reference=/tmp/track-12.wav
> [root at mavis root]#
> 
> Now.  I won't even look at the /tmp directory until tomorrow morning.
> 
> Y'know, sometimes this stuff is more fun to look back at than forward to!

Keep in mind that /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch calls tmpwatch with a value
of 240, meaning that it'll only delete files that haven't been
_accessed_ in 10 days.  If you so much as "cat" one of those, it resets
the access time and you need to wait another 10 days.  That catches a
lot of people off guard.

It calls tmpwatch with a value of 720 for /var/tmp, meaning that stuff
must be unaccessed for 30 days.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-     There are only 10 kinds of people in the world -- those who    -
-                 understand binary and those who don't              -
----------------------------------------------------------------------





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