[ solved ] Bit of a mess in my /tmp directory

[wedgetail]

Errrh got a bit too adventurous trying to unsquash a file in /tmp the result is I now have a very untidy looking /tmp.

I admit I have not searched Forum as I am burning some midnight oil on the jolly unsquash problem in the "other thread" which caused me a slip of concentration when a grand kid very energetic climbed my leg to give a helping hand.  The system now booted some time from some odd partition with a weird menu list. This set me back "some time" but have partly recovered from this sidestep.  What fun  

Back to the /tmp cleaning. Some of the directories I could recognise and have deleted them but I have good swag left.  

Can I safely clear everything out of /tmp?  If so does this call for a reboot before carrying on, in a bit of a hurry  

[Bald Brick]

Errrh got a bit too adventurous trying to unsquash a file in /tmp the result is I now have a very untidy looking /tmp.

I admit I have not searched Forum as I am burning some midnight oil on the jolly unsquash problem in the "other thread" which caused me a slip of concentration when a grand kid very energetic climbed my leg to give a helping hand.  The system now booted some time from some odd partition with a weird menu list. This set me back "some time" but have partly recovered from this sidestep.  What fun 

Back to the /tmp cleaning. Some of the directories I could recognise and have deleted them but I have good swag left. 

Can I safely clear everything out of /tmp?

Yes.

If so does this call for a reboot before carrying on, in a bit of a hurry   

A reboot is a good idea. It may not always be necessary, but some of your running programs, including your desktop environment, may expect to find their temporary data in /tmp or ~/tmp.

[menotu]

Errrh got a bit too adventurous trying to unsquash a file in /tmp the result is I now have a very untidy looking /tmp.

I admit I have not searched Forum as I am burning some midnight oil on the jolly unsquash problem in the "other thread" which caused me a slip of concentration when a grand kid very energetic climbed my leg to give a helping hand.  The system now booted some time from some odd partition with a weird menu list. This set me back "some time" but have partly recovered from this sidestep.  What fun 

Back to the /tmp cleaning. Some of the directories I could recognise and have deleted them but I have good swag left. 

Can I safely clear everything out of /tmp?

Yes.

If so does this call for a reboot before carrying on, in a bit of a hurry   

A reboot is a good idea. It may not always be necessary, but some of your running programs, including your desktop environment, may expect to find their temporary data in /tmp or ~/tmp.

+1

I tend to close any applications I have running before doing a cleanup (usually with Bleachbit)

Am I right in thinking that a user can only delete or rename files owned by said user?

[wedgetail]

Thanks both.
Should have remembered about closing applications first is a good idea.

As user I could delete all but about 15 items, some root directories not allowable, had root konsole open.

With root privileges I could delete those remaining, but I am doing a reboot now very soon.   

[wedgetail]

I have survived a complete clean out, a number of items, counting around 5, depending on activity, has returned as soon as I start up but I am quite happy with the content looks "proper" to me again.

I will mark as solved   

[pags]

...
Am I right in thinking that a user can only delete or rename files owned by said user?

Yes.  That is what the "sticky" bit is for (the "t"):

Code: [Select]

drwxrwxrwt  15 0 0   320 Jan 18 11:03 tmp/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_bit

[Tony]

I kind of understand the temptattion to clear the /tmp directory, in  /home/'myuser', but then think heck something must want these files, and leave it be.
If I use Bleachbit it all seems simpler as I don't have to take responsibility and maybe wrongly assume it will be 'intelligent' deciding what to delete.

Which leads to Bleachbit; if I select KDE, or System /temp, generally my desktop will crash (freeze) requiring logging out/in a few times.

I wonder what programs cause this ? Or is it a quirk of using MiniMe ? It's been very hot, please excuse if i've wandered off the track. 

[Bald Brick]

I kind of understand the temptattion to clear the /tmp directory, in  /home/'myuser', but then think heck something must want these files, and leave it be.

That is precisely why rebooting immediately after you've emptied one of the tmp directories is a good idea.

They are intended for temporary files that don't have to survive a reboot, but those files may be needed by your running programs. If you, on the other hand, find a program that uses the the tmp directories for permanent storage, you've found one buggy program - which I wouldn't trust to do anything right.

Also note that PCC makes it easy to move /temp into RAM, and if you do, it will be emptied every time you shut down your computer.

As some of the more important tmp directories (~/tmp and /var/tmp) used to be symbolic links to /tmp in PCLinuxOS, rebooting would in fact empty all of them. (They still are symlinks on all my systems, but this isn't the default any more. Why? I don't know but I suppose the reason might be security-related. Perhaps It was felt that the sticky bit on /tmp didn't give the users' temporary files the protection they needed.)

If I use Bleachbit it all seems simpler as I don't have to take responsibility and maybe wrongly assume it will be 'intelligent' deciding what to delete.

Which leads to Bleachbit; if I select KDE, or System /temp, generally my desktop will crash (freeze) requiring logging out/in a few times.

I wonder what programs cause this ? Or is it a quirk of using MiniMe ? It's been very hot, please excuse if i've wandered off the track.  

[Tony]

Thanks for your reply Bald Brick, gives me some info to chew on and ponder.

Regards