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#1 2012-10-05 21:56:33

berbae
Member
From: France
Registered: 2007-02-12
Posts: 1,302

[SOLVED] systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer and cleaning of /var/tmp

I know there is this thread with "SystemMaxUse option" in the object title which gives a way to clear /var/tmp of the undeleted systemd-private-* folders at shutdown, from ntpd service for example.
But I prefer to open a thread with a more appropriate subject title for that.
On my systemd init desktop computer, I have:

[berbae@arch64 ~]$ systemctl status systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer
systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service - Recreate Volatile Files and Directories
          Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service; static)
          Active: active (exited) since Fri, 05 Oct 2012 10:47:48 +0200; 1h 6min ago
            Docs: man:tmpfiles.d(5)
         Process: 293 ExecStart=/usr/bin/systemd-tmpfiles --create --remove (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
          CGroup: name=systemd:/system/systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service

Oct 05 10:47:48 arch64 systemd[1]: Started Recreate Volatile Files and Directories.

systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer - Daily Cleanup of Temporary Directories
          Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer; static)
          Active: active (waiting) since Fri, 05 Oct 2012 10:47:48 +0200; 1h 6min ago
            Docs: man:tmpfiles.d(5)

systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer uses the *.conf files in /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d
one of these files is tmp.conf which contains:

d /tmp 1777 root root 10d
d /var/tmp 1777 root root 30d

For /var/tmp there is an Age field which is 30 days.

So does that mean /var/tmp is automatically cleaned every months by default?
If this is the case, for one boot/shutdown every day, there will have at most 30 systemd-private folders for the ntpd service.
And as the folders are empty, they will not use much space on the disk.

Can someone confirms that I understand that matter well?

So, either there is nothing special to do to regularly clear the /var/tmp directory every month,
or the Age field can be reduced to a much frequent value.
Is this correct?

Last edited by berbae (2012-10-07 21:05:56)

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#2 2012-10-06 14:09:21

berbae
Member
From: France
Registered: 2007-02-12
Posts: 1,302

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer and cleaning of /var/tmp

This cleaning procedure is confirmed by the documentation:

[berbae@arch64 ~]$ grep -v '^#' /usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer

[Unit]
Description=Daily Cleanup of Temporary Directories
Documentation=man:tmpfiles.d(5)

[Timer]
OnBootSec=15min
OnUnitActiveSec=1d

and

[berbae@arch64 ~]$ grep -v '^#' /usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service

[Unit]
Description=Cleanup of Temporary Directories
Documentation=man:tmpfiles.d(5)
DefaultDependencies=no
Wants=local-fs.target
After=systemd-readahead-collect.service systemd-readahead-replay.service local-fs.target
Before=sysinit.target shutdown.target
ConditionDirectoryNotEmpty=|/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d
ConditionDirectoryNotEmpty=|/usr/local/lib/tmpfiles.d
ConditionDirectoryNotEmpty=|/etc/tmpfiles.d
ConditionDirectoryNotEmpty=|/run/tmpfiles.d

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/systemd-tmpfiles --clean
IOSchedulingClass=idle

So the command 'systemd-tmpfiles --clean' is called 15 minutes after boot time, and then once a day if there is no shutdown.
From its manual:

       --clean
           If this option is passed all files and directories with an age parameter configured will be cleaned up.

So that confirms what I wrote in the preceding post.

Now to change the frequency of the cleanup, it should work copying /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/tmp.conf to /etc/tmpfiles.d, and changing it to:

d /tmp 1777 root root 10d
d /var/tmp 1777 root root 7d

for a weekly /var/tmp/ cleanup instead of monthly.

Or still easier, let the default monthly cleanup.

Last edited by berbae (2012-10-07 09:01:28)

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#3 2012-10-06 14:59:58

birdflesh
Member
From: Greece
Registered: 2010-08-04
Posts: 97

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer and cleaning of /var/tmp

"d" in the beggining of every line means "Create a directory if it doesn't exist yet".

man tmpfiles.d for more information.

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#4 2012-10-06 16:21:15

tomegun
Developer
From: France
Registered: 2010-05-28
Posts: 661

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer and cleaning of /var/tmp

berbae wrote:
systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer - Daily Cleanup of Temporary Directories
          Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer; static)
          Active: active (waiting) since Fri, 05 Oct 2012 10:47:48 +0200; 1h 6min ago
            Docs: man:tmpfiles.d(5)

systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer uses the *.conf files in /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d
one of these files is tmp.conf which contains:

d /tmp 1777 root root 10d
d /var/tmp 1777 root root 30d

For /var/tmp there is an Age field which is 30 days.

So does that mean /var/tmp is automatically cleaned every months by default?
If this is the case, for one boot/shutdown every day, there will have at most 30 systemd-private folders for the ntpd service.
And as the folders are empty, they will not use much space on the disk.

Can someone confirms that I understand that matter well?

That's correct. systemd will do a tmpflise cleanup at regular intervals (once a day? i forget). It will then delete any files which have not been accessed in the last 30 days (or whatever is configured).

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#5 2012-10-06 17:14:14

ninian
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2008-02-24
Posts: 726
Website

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer and cleaning of /var/tmp

Thanks guys, that's cleared things up a lot.
Sounds like sticking to systemd's default cleanup behaviour is okay.
Anything for a simpler life!
wink

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#6 2012-10-07 09:19:04

berbae
Member
From: France
Registered: 2007-02-12
Posts: 1,302

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer and cleaning of /var/tmp

birdflesh wrote:

"d" in the beginning of every line means "Create a directory if it doesn't exist yet"

To clarify a little more, the same *.conf files are used to create, to remove and to clean directories and files, looking to the appropriate parameters in them.

The systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service calls at boot time:
/usr/bin/systemd-tmpfiles --create --remove

The systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service, controlled by systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer, calls:
/usr/bin/systemd-tmpfiles --clean (it uses the Age parameter of d,D lines)

They all used the *.conf files found in, sorted in precedence order:
/etc/tmpfiles.d/*.conf
/run/tmpfiles.d/*.conf
/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/*.conf

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#7 2012-10-07 09:35:25

birdflesh
Member
From: Greece
Registered: 2010-08-04
Posts: 97

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer and cleaning of /var/tmp

Yep, the default configuration works fine.
I used "touch --date" to modify the creation date of a folder in /var/tmp so that it would be older than a month and it got deleted 15min after my next reboot.

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#8 2012-10-07 14:41:23

berbae
Member
From: France
Registered: 2007-02-12
Posts: 1,302

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer and cleaning of /var/tmp

Thank you for the feedback birdflesh.
Personally I opted for a weekly cleanup of /var/tmp (30 useless folders from ntpd is too much for me).

But from that learning experience, I feel that this systemd-tmpfiles procedure is very flexible and configurable; I don't think that fine-tuning of creation, removal or cleanup of temporary directories and files was possible with the sysvinit initscripts. So it's a good point for systemd, in my present feeling about it.

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#9 2012-10-07 14:50:10

WonderWoofy
Member
From: Los Gatos, CA
Registered: 2012-05-19
Posts: 8,414

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer and cleaning of /var/tmp

Solved then?  If so, you know what to do smile

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