The “tmpwatch ” command in linux is to removes files which haven’t been accessed for a period of time. The tmpwatch recursively removes files which haven’t been accessed for a given time. Normally, it’s used to clean up directories which are used for temporary holding space such as /tmp.
If you are noticing “/tmp” getting overloaded with files and not sure which files/folders to delete – you better use “tmpwatch” to cleanup or delete files/folders from the “/tmp” directory.
You’ll need SSH root access to install tmpwatch and add it in the cron. If your server is inaccessible due to “/tmp” getting full – you may restart the server and that should free up some space after reboot.
- Login to the server as root using SSH
- Run the following command:
#yum install tmpwatch -y
- To delete temporary files (for example after every 12 hours) run the following command:
#/usr/sbin/tmpwatch -am 12 /tmp
- The next step is to configure tmpwatch to run automatically through a cron. To do that type the following command:
#crontab -e
- The above command will open the cron job list for the user root. Now go to the bottom and add the following line and save the file:
0 4 * * * /usr/sbin/tmpwatch -am 12 /tmp
If you are unable to add the above line, you may navigate to “/var/spool/cron” and open the cron file “root” with a text editor (such as, vi, nano). Add the line at the bottom and save the file:
0 4 * * * /usr/sbin/tmpwatch -am 12 /tmp
Check the usage of “/tmp” and it should be clean by now.
Thank you.
