Re: [gentoo-user] stuff accumulating in /tmp

[Philip Webb]

080120 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Sunday 20 January 2008, Philip Webb wrote:
>> 080119 Kevin wrote:
>>> To automatically wipe /tmp upon reboot,
>>> change  WIPE_TMP  to "yes" in  /etc/conf.d/bootmisc
>> Thanks: I will consider the implications.
> There aren't any implications.
> By *definition*, the contents of /tmp should not be relied on
> to survive a reboot or even subsequent invocations of the same program.
> Any app that does rely on the contents of /tmp still being there is thus
> fundamentally broken in it's behaviour and should be avoided or fixed.

Strictly, you are correct -- that's the POSIX rule, which I know about -- ,
but there is a problem when using Mutt (another user mentioned this).
By default, Mutt creates its temporary files in  /tmp ,
which applies to the working file for new msgs even when editing with Vim
(which defaults to keeping its  .swp  running-back-up files in '.').
Leaving the defaults in place, if power fails while composing a msg,
the surviving  .swp  files wb preserved in  /tmp ,
but only if you don't set  WIPE_TMP="yes" .  If you set that to "yes",
when you reboot after the power failure, the  .swp  back-up wb lost.
You need to change  .muttrc  to include 'set tmpdir="/var/tmp"',
which should always survive a reboot (acc to POSIX).

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