Dusan Baljevic dusan.baljevic@ieee.org

Better settings for /tmp on HP-UX

Historically, settings for /tmp on HP-UX servers has always been wrong:

All applications use it; Cleanup is not automated; /tmp, as part of root disk, unnecessarily loaded with data that does not belong in it.

What are the more appropriate settings for /tmp? Here is my recommendation that I have been using in all my designs:

A) Set TMPDIR variable to point to some other non-boot-volume.

I always encourage application admins to use their own areas for temporary files.

Some applications look at TMPDIR environment variable.

Others look at two other variables:

Try setting TEMP and TMP as well as TMPDIR.

B) Is the /tmp file system mounted with "tmplog" option in /etc/fstab?

/tmp is DESIGNED for temporary files, so it should not be abused for other choices.

In "tmplog" mode, the intent log is almost always delayed.

This improves performance, but recent changes may disappear if the system crashes.

C) Is /tmp cleaned up at boot time (not really a performance issue but useful for maintenance, especially if number of temporary files keep growing)?

Enable it in /etc/rc.config.d/clean_tmps

CLEAR_TMP=1