Delete all in /tmp ???

shreev · 08-07-2003, 09:16 AM

Hi,
I find that my /tmp dir has been growing streadily for some time and is currently occupying almost 350 mb ... is it safe to delete ALL the stuff in the directory or will it affect any apps ? I imagine its better to do this during shutdown....

jpbarto · 08-07-2003, 09:29 AM

better to do at shutdown (or at startup immediately after mounting the disks) ... but yes it is generally ok to delete everything in /tmp .

If you're uneasy go into /tmp and look at some of the access dates on those files I'm sure you'll find plenty that are older than Linus himself.

Azmeen · 08-07-2003, 09:32 AM

/tmp can and should be cleared regularly... Unmaintained /tmp dirs can be a nice breeding ground for backdoors and other unwanted apps.

shreev · 08-07-2003, 11:37 AM

Cool....thanks for the replies..

So...can I add 'rm -rf /tmp/*' (before the unmounting of the filesystems takes place) to my rc.6 - so that everything in /tmp gets wiped out in shutdown ...... or is there a better place to put this ??

Strike · 08-07-2003, 04:04 PM

Slackware doesn't do this automatically? That's crazy, every other distribution I've ever seen clears out /tmp and /var/tmp at shutdown and/or bootup.

nakkaya · 08-07-2003, 04:12 PM

no redhat also doesnt clean it too i allways clear it manualy but dont rm -rf /tmp/ i never tried but removing actually temp can cause problem since progs will look for if it is not created during start up