Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 13:57:15 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> To: John Bolster <j.bol@gte.net> Cc: "Freebsd-Questions@Freebsd. Org" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: mailchk.026233 Message-ID: <20020918125715.GB82815@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi> In-Reply-To: <NEBBKLANMLAKACFKNODOCEAPGHAA.j.bol@gte.net> References: <NEBBKLANMLAKACFKNODOCEAPGHAA.j.bol@gte.net>
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On Tue, Sep 17, 2002 at 05:22:39PM -0400, John Bolster wrote:
> I've found hundreds of files with names like mailchk.xxxxxx in my /tmp
> directory. This is FreeBSD 4.1 RELEASE, the server runs the UW IMAP server
> and Squirrelmail. Does anyone know if these files can be safely deleted?
>
> Also, in /var/tmp there are hundreds of phpxxxxxx files. Same question.
The answer is "probably yes". Those files are temporary storage used
by various programs to cache some data in, and maybe hand it over to
some other process for dealing with. The program will typically use
each one once and then open up a new file the next time it needs that
sort of thing. (Hence the numbers to ensure unique temporary file
names). Well behaved programs will delete the files once they've
finished using them. Cunning programs will use the mkstemp(3) call to
get a unique filename and open the file in one fell swoop. Really
cunning programs will do that, and unlink the files *before* they've
used them, just keeping the open file descriptor to access their
temporary space.
Use the fstat(1) command to see if any processes have the files open.
If not, try deleting some of them. If there are no howls of protest
from your user base, I'd say you're probably OK to clean out those
directories.
Cheers,
Matthew
--
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks
Savill Way
Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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