> Joe> How temporary is /tmp? > > /tmp is permanent. The stuff in it isn't. > > Joe> I've downloaded Firefox > Joe> twice (both times into /tmp) to play around with > Joe> it and both times (next day) when I went back it > Joe> was gone. Is there something running (debian) > Joe> that gets rid of anything in /tmp or am I just > Joe> loosing it? > > Have you been rebooting between downloads? It's been > years since I've looked closely at that, but the usual > process on Unix systems I've dealt with (many) is to > delete everything in /tmp when a system is rebooted. > > Directories and files with names that start with '.' > (dot) are not removed, just ordinary files. So if you > put it in a subdirectory in /tmp it should still be > there between boots. > > Or put it in /var/tmp. As far as I know, that stuff is > not touched between boots. > > I've never looked to see where this is done. It's not > cron, as someone else suggested. Unless your system has > a specal process in place to keep /tmp cleaned up. > > Generally, it's not a good idea to put anything in /tmp > that you want to stay around. That's why they call it > tmp (temporary) after all. I rebooted following each download (I just switched to Cox high speed and "always connected" makes me nervous... although the last time I pulled the cover off the Dell, all most 6 years old at this point, the amount of dust in there made me nervous). Was thinking of putting it in /opt (optional software?). This sort of begs the question - what good is /tmp beyond tracking down what is deleting the stuff, what the trigger event is (age, runlevel change, whatever) and not leaving anything in there across the "trigger event?" /tmp is the last partition on the system and its 48 G size seems a bit "pricey" given the enforced temporary-ness - not that I would trust myself to resize it... Joe --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss