Clearing files

johnmidl · August 27, 2011, 5:53pm

I’m lost! Since my little episode when I was brain dead for about 35 minutes my memory is somewhat defunctive.
My other PC has ground to a halt as the tmp file is full: “/tmp out of disk space” & “KDE unable to start”. I have scoured commands and can’t find how to clear all the junk apart from move it somewhere else which seems a bit silly. Help! :’(

please_try_again · August 27, 2011, 6:45pm

The following command will delete everything in /tmp:

su -c 'rm -R /tmp/*'

At your own risk!

chief_sealth · August 27, 2011, 7:57pm

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to do this on a reboot. This will end any processes using files in /tmp.

please_try_again · August 27, 2011, 8:37pm

boot in runlevel 1 (append 1 in boot options line at Grub menu screen)
log in with root password
type the following:

cd /etc/sysconfig
cp cron cron.bak
sed -i '/CLEAR_TMP_DIRS_AT_BOOTUP/s/no/yes/' cron

reboot

shutdown -r now

knurpht · August 27, 2011, 9:42pm

please_try_again:

boot in runlevel 1 (append 1 in boot options line at Grub menu screen)

log in with root password

type the following:
cd /etc/sysconfig
cp cron cron.bak
sed -i '/CLEAR_TMP_DIRS_AT_BOOTUP/s/no/yes/' cron
reboot
shutdown -r now

One can also achieve this by adding “3” at the boot options line, at console login prompt login with username and password, then do “su -c yast”. Once in Yast, go to System - Sysconfigeditor, search for TMP, and set the TMP dirs to be cleared at each boot.

johnmidl · August 28, 2011, 2:17pm

Thanks all! I am having to write all down these days - will keep these tips.