[NTLUG:Discuss] Persistence in /tmp

[Chris Cox]

On Tue, 2009-05-05 at 08:20 -0500, Leroy Tennison wrote:
> I noticed today that some things I had downloaded days (or months) ago 
> continued to exist in /tmp as well as other miscellaneous files.  There 
> were a number of PPD files but also downloaded documents, directories 
> (empty and not) and socket files.  Most were deletable but some (even 
> with "old" dates) weren't.
> 
> I was previously under the impression that /tmp was truly temporary 
> (cleaned up @ shutdown or restart).  Is that an incorrect understanding 
> or am I seeing the results of program bugs in the non-current files and 
> directories?

It is a misunderstanding.  The idea is that /tmp CAN get cleaned out
on a regular basis, but technically, it doesn't even have to cleaned out
upon reboot.  So... you can't assume that /tmp gets cleared.