Automatically cleanup tmp directory in Unix

Question

I am implementing my own file cache server using Play framework, and I put my cached files in /tmp directory.

However I do not know how the OS manages the /tmp directory. What I wish to know is if the OS will automatically cleanup some files that are old enough, or have not been accessed for a long time.

I am running my server in a Docker container, based on Debian jessie.

Not that it matters for your question, but is `/tmp` mounted from the host OS or inside the Docker container? — Thilo, Oct 06 '15 at 11:34
I am having it mounted inside the Docker container. I think it would be interesting to mount the volume with the host OS, and have another container do the cleanup. — Khanetor, Oct 06 '15 at 11:35

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 06 '15 at 11:33

1

Your OS won't clean up /tmp. Some Unix variants clear it out at reboot. You will need to do this yourself.

 find /tmp/yourpath -mtime +30 -type f -exec rm {} \;

For example.

But Docker is a bit of a special case, as the containers are an encapsulation layer. That find will still do the trick, but you could probably just dump and restart your container 'fresh' and trash the old one.

answered Oct 06 '15 at 11:33

Sobrique

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I am not familiar with the command you have above. Does it clean the /tmp directory every 30 minutes? – Khanetor Oct 06 '15 at 11:37
Nope. Read the man page on `find`. It deletes any files older than 30 days old. And runs once. You can add it to `cron` to run more regularly. – Sobrique Oct 06 '15 at 11:44
I will tinker with this solution, thanks Sobrique! :) – Khanetor Oct 06 '15 at 11:45

Automatically cleanup tmp directory in Unix

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