Re: autoclean mode for tmpfs

[Johnny Billquist <bqt%softjar.se@localhost>]

On 2011-08-07 18.38, David Holland wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 07, 2011 at 06:29:01PM +0200, Marc Balmer wrote:
>   >  And what is auto-erasing files good for in the first place?  I don't get
>   >  the point, for me it's calling for trouble.
>
> Traditionally, it's so /tmp doesn't grow without bound, which once
> upon a time was a problem with small root partitions or ramdisks.
>
> Another possible use is for files you explicitly want to make
> transient, like say /var/rwho (not that anyone uses rwhod any more) or
> /usr/pkgsrc/packages or /var/crash or a subtree you point coredumps
> into. Or whatever.

I use rwhod. :-)
And it would not be a good idea to clean that automatically. It also 
gives information on how long a machine have been down...

But I can see the occasional use for files with an expire time. Not sure 
that I'd use it, though. Cleaning out /tmp works fine using sticky bits 
and the occasional manual cleaning, if needed, for me. Not that I can 
remember actually ever having had to clean /tmp, but I bet I've done it 
at some point.

        Johnny