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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