Unaccessed files or directories in /tmp gets automatically removed by the default function of package "tmpwatch". It also cleans up the contents of directories like /var/tmp. "tmpwatch" provides a cron job /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch which is a shell script exceuted by cron daily. This checks for the files unaccessed for a long time and removes them.
Sample configuration file on centos/RHEL5 is as below
# cat /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch
flags=-umc
/usr/sbin/tmpwatch "$flags" -x /tmp/ .X11-unix -x /tmp/ .XIM-unix \
-x /tmp/ .font-unix -x /tmp/ .ICE-unix -x /tmp/ .Test-unix \
-X ' /tmp/hsperfdata_* ' 240 /tmp
/usr/sbin/tmpwatch "$flags" 720 /var/tmp
for d in /var/ {cache/man,catman}/{cat?,X11R6/cat?,local/cat?}; do
if [ -d "$d" ]; then
/usr/sbin/tmpwatch "$flags" -f 720 "$d"
fi
done
Files which has been unaccessed for 240 hours (10 days for /tmp) or 720 hours (30 days for /var/tmp) will be removed from the above configuration.
Sample configuration file on CentOS/RHEL6 is as below:
# cat /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch
flags=-umc
/usr/sbin/tmpwatch "$flags" -x /tmp/ .X11-unix -x /tmp/ .XIM-unix \
-x /tmp/ .font-unix -x /tmp/ .ICE-unix -x /tmp/ .Test-unix \
-X ' /tmp/hsperfdata_* ' -X '/tmp/ .hdblock' -X ' /tmp/ .sapstartsrv*.log' \
-X ' /tmp/pymp-* ' 10d /tmp
/usr/sbin/tmpwatch "$flags" 30d /var/tmp
for d in /var/ {cache/man,catman}/{cat?,X11R6/cat?,local/cat?}; do
if [ -d "$d" ]; then
/usr/sbin/tmpwatch "$flags" -f 30d "$d"
fi
done
Files/directories that have not been accessed for 10(/tmp) or 30(/var/tmp) days will be removed using the above configuration.
It is good to get the unused files removed from /tmp to free up the space. This will help the file system not to get over loaded.
However, one can disable the tmpwatch function if required, using the below methods.
1] Removing the tmpwatch package
# rpm -e tmpwatch
or
# yum remove tmpwatch
2] Disable the tmpwatch cron entry
In some cases, we cannot remove the tmpwatch package and will get the below error. This is because of the dependencies it has.
# rpm -e tmpwatch
LANG=C rpm -e tmpwatch
error: Failed dependencies:
tmpwatch is needed by (installed) tetex-3.0-33.15.el5_8.1.x86_64
tmpwatch is needed by (installed) cups-1.3.7-32.el5_11.x86_64
Moreover shell script /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch can be moved or removed using the following command:
# mv /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch /other/location/tmpwatch.bkp
or
# rm /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch
Disable tmpwatch only if needed as it is responsible for freeing up space.
