I am looking for a program or script that cleans out temp directories and unneeded remnants of past installs and uninstalls.
Thanks.
This old one comes to mind: “Linux is not windows”.
F.e.: if you install a package, then uninstall it, the utmost that will remain is config files. Since the package is no longer there, the config files will not be used.
From what you say, I read that you have the impression that traces of installs/uninstalls are all over the place in well hidden folders and files. That is “so windows”.
Ask yourself: why would you want this?
Hi andy77586,
For /tmp cleaning, you can simply edit /etc/sysconfig/cron and, for example, set CLEAR_TMP_DIRS_AT_BOOTUP to “yes”. You can also specify other temporary files directories with TMP_DIRS_TO_CLEAR.
As a side note, if your temporary files directory is a tmpfs mount point it will be cleared at each power-off. Applications should take care not to let temporary files all over the place anyway.
On 2013-09-15 17:36, kalten wrote:
> For /tmp cleaning, you can simply edit /etc/sysconfig/cron and, for
> example, set CLEAR_TMP_DIRS_AT_BOOTUP to “yes”. You can also specify
> other temporary files directories with TMP_DIRS_TO_CLEAR.
Those settings do not work with systemd. Or some of them.
Look, this is an 11.4 system, with sysv:
cer@minas-tirith:~> l /etc/cron.daily/
total 63
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 528 Dec 18 2012 ./
drwxr-xr-x 144 root root 11000 Sep 15 21:09 ../
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 970 Jul 10 2010 leafnode*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 635 Mar 13 2012 logrotate*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1414 Dec 6 2011 packagekit-background.cron*
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root 948 Feb 23 2011 suse-clean_catman*
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root 1693 Feb 23 2011 suse-do_mandb*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 672 Feb 22 2011 suse-texlive*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1538 Feb 18 2011 suse-updatedb*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 238 Feb 19 2011 suse.cron-sa-update*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1875 Sep 1 2003 suse.de-backup-rc.config*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2059 Sep 8 2003 suse.de-backup-rpmdb*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 566 Jul 23 2004 suse.de-check-battery*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1380 Jan 13 2010 suse.de-clean-tmp*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 371 Sep 1 2003 suse.de-cron-local*
cer@minas-tirith:~>
And now, a 12.3 system with systemd:
Telcontar:~ # l /etc/cron.daily/
total 96
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 12 13:21 ./
drwxr-xr-x 199 root root 20480 Sep 14 19:38 ../
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 458 Nov 28 2012 leafnode*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 457 Nov 28 2012 leafnode~*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 634 Jul 29 11:08 logrotate*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 590 Mar 27 2011 logrotate~*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 778 Jun 19 10:09 mdadm*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1297 Aug 3 2011 mlocate.cron*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1414 Mar 13 2013 packagekit-background.cron*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 484 Oct 16 2005 smart
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root 948 Jan 27 2013 suse-clean_catman*
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root 1693 Jan 27 2013 suse-do_mandb*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1379 Jul 19 15:06 suse-texlive*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 877 Feb 25 2013 suse.cron-sa-update*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1875 Mar 28 16:25 suse.de-backup-rc.config*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2059 Mar 28 16:25 suse.de-backup-rpmdb*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 566 Mar 28 16:25 suse.de-check-battery*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 371 Mar 28 16:25 suse.de-cron-local*
-rwx------ 1 root root 149 Nov 12 2005 suse.de-faxcron*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 744 Mar 1 2013 suse.de-snapper*
Telcontar:~ #
Do you see something different? About “clean-tmp”? 
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)
Darn, you are right robin_listas. My bad. I just checked openSUSE 12.3 Release Notes:
The good news for you, andy77586, is that your temporary files directory is already automatically cleaned ;).
Was Windows mentioned ?
Was there a comparison to Windows ?
Chill out, life is too short.
Can someone take the penguin off my label.
I think most of us are above the level of an animal.
The Label is part of the default settings for standard users in our vB implementation. And Penguins are a ref to TUX the Linux mascot.
Thanks for the helpful replies.
I edited the chron file and said yes to some of the lines.
I need to make a bash script to clean up files that I download.
It will move zips to a storage directory and delete the rest.
Andy
On Sun, 15 Sep 2013 13:36:03 +0000, andy77586 wrote:
> I am looking for a program or script that cleans out temp directories
> and unneeded remnants of past installs and uninstalls.
tmpwatch is what I use to clear out /tmp - it looks at the access dates
on files and determines that way if the files are still needed.
It’s in the standard repositories.
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C