Re: /tmp

> 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