[lug] ls -l /var/tmp = drwxrwxrwt 16 root root 1478656 Mar 19 10:38tmp

[D. Stimits]

Bob Collins wrote:
> 
> I noticed my disk space is 96% so I started looking around
> and noticed the /var/tmp directory showed 1478656 blocks.  I
> am in the process of doing a ls -l /tmp to see what is
> inside.  It has been running for about 10 minuets and is
> still not finished.
> 
> I am looking for ideas as to why it might be so large and
> what I can do to free up the space.  My first inclination
> was to delete the directory, but thought I might get better
> ideas from the LUG.
> 
> I am running SuSE 6.4 on this machine.
> 
> --    Regards, Bob Collins
> People often find it easier to be a result of the past than
> a
> cause of the future.

What subdirectories are in /tmp/? Most X related ones can be removed
(probably best while X isn't running, init to non-X runlevel if it
automatically runs X at startup). Some of those are:
.ICE-unix
.X11-unix
.esd
.gnome
.xf86config*
.kfm-cache-*
nscomm*
orbit-*

There are in fact annoyance programs that take advantage of filling up a
partition through tmp entries. The one that I've helped others fix in
the past is "SuperForker", a fork bomb that builds subdirectories,
recursively, in /tmp/ where anyone has permission. It grows until the
system is out of resources, and uses directory names that can't be typed
in at the keyboard without special escape sequences. What does it show
if you type from /tmp/ "ls -ald *"?