[Gllug] Wiping free space.

[Richard Jones]

On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 03:42:11PM +0000, Simon Wilcox wrote:
> On 29/12/09 15:36, Rich Walker wrote:
> > On 29/12/2009 15:22, JLMS wrote:
> > 
> >> /var/tmp is supposed to be persistent between boots, I have seen some
> >> dumb applications wanting to find something there to function
> >> properly, so beware :-)
> > 
> > *sound of head banging on desk*
> 
> It's defined that way in the FHS:
> 
> http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#VARTMPTEMPORARYFILESPRESERVEDBETWEE

Indeed, but no sane app should depend on this behaviour.

'rm -rf /var/tmp/*' is a perfectly valid thing for an admin to do if,
say, /var/tmp is filling up and preventing the machine from booting.

Apps should store cached data that they want to be persistent
somewhere else, like /var/cache (still allowing the admin to delete
it) or /var/lib.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones
Red Hat
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