Configuring tmpwatch

[seaeagle]

Hi all -

 

I have tmpwatch installed on my system, and it is supposed to do a daily clean of the /tmp & /var/tmp folders, removing files not accessed in the past 10 days. When I checked the /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch file, this is how it was configured:

 

#!/bin/sh

 

[ -f /etc/sysconfig/tmpwatch ] && . /etc/sysconfig/tmpwatch

 

/usr/sbin/tmpwatch $TMPWATCH_EXCLUDES 240 /tmp /var/tmp

 

[ -f /etc/sysconfig/i18n ] && . /etc/sysconfig/i18n

if [ -d /usr/share/man/$LANG/ ] && [ -d /var/catman/$LANG/ ]; then

/usr/sbin/tmpwatch -f 240 /var/catman/{X11R6/cat?,cat?,local/cat?,$LANG/cat?}

else

/usr/sbin/tmpwatch -f 240 /var/catman/{X11R6/cat?,cat?,local/cat?}

fi

I notice that it has "$TMPWATCH_EXCLUDES" before "240 /tmp /var/tmp" - does that mean it is set by default not to work on those 2 folders?

 

As they are the ones I do want to regularly clean, along with my /home/seaeagle/tmp folder, should I change that line to:

 

/usr/sbin/tmpwatch 240 /tmp /var/tmp /home/seaeagle/tmp

I just want to make sure I have things right.

 

Thanks.

[Mhn]

$TMPWATCH_EXCLUDES is a variable which i think should be set in /etc/sysconfig/tmpwatch

 

Take a look there after a line:

TMPWATCH_EXCLUDES = something

[seaeagle]

Thanks for your quick reply Mhn. It looks like a list of sub-directories that tmpwatch should ignore (such as /tmp/.ICE-unix). I've left the $TMPWATCH_EXCLUDES in the cron file & just added my home tmp directory to the end of the line.

[pindakoe]

You may want to add --all to also purge otehr objects than files, directories & symlinks (sockets etc). Secondly I have found that some programs access files (I suspect updatedb), meaning that files never get deleted as their access times (by which tmpwatch works) are continuously updated. I usethe --ctime option. See man tmpwatch for details.