Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 14:33:47 -0400 From: "John Bolster" <j.bol@gte.net> To: "Matthew Seaman" <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> Cc: "Freebsd-Questions@Freebsd. Org" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: mailchk.026233 Message-ID: <NEBBKLANMLAKACFKNODOOECFGHAA.j.bol@gte.net> In-Reply-To: <20020918125715.GB82815@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi>
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Thank you for the advice. John Bolster > -----Original Message----- > From: Matthew Seaman [mailto:m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk] > Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 8:57 AM > To: John Bolster > Cc: Freebsd-Questions@Freebsd. Org > Subject: Re: mailchk.026233 > > > 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 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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