cleaning /tmp directory

[Tim]

Tim:
>> Not quite...  It will delete not recently looked at files, whether you
>> actually used them or not.  It's an important distinction, here's why:

Adalbert Prokop:
> I did not want to exaggerate the distinction between
> creation/modification/access time - simplifications are helpful in
> explanations. ;)

I prefer not to oversimplify things to the point that they're misleading
or incorrect.  If you think that files aren't being "used" when that
isn't really the deletion criteria, you're going to get confused trying
to work out why they're not being deleted.

> But yes, there is clearly a difference. Just listing the contents of a
> directory will not change the file access time, but reading the files
> surely will.

That depends on what you use to list them.  In the command line, you're
just going to read the directory.  In a graphical manager, it's probably
going to look into the files, to determine what type they are, while
listing them, not just when you try to open one of them.

As far as deleting /tmp files on shutdown or startup, as a solution, I
suggest doing so on shutdown.  That way they only get deleted on good
shutdowns.  On a crash, temp files are still there when you reboot, so
you can check things out as part of your diagnosis.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686

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