temp directory

[Shivkumar]

Dear Sirs,

Is there a tmp directory other /tmp ?
I am not able to recollect but i had seen while installing some software 2 years ago.( /usr/IATEMP ?? )

Thanks,
Shiv

[Arunvijai_4]

Hi Shiv, It should be under /var/tmp

-Arun

[Shivkumar]

okay. what is the use of /var/tmp ?

[RAC_1]

There is /tmp and /var/tmp
Many apps/installables use variable as TMPDIR during installation.

What exactly are you looking at??

[Arunvijai_4 · Accepted solution]

It is used for downloading depots from website as specified in HP Docs. (Not necessary though)

Something like this,

# Log in as superuser (root) on the depot system; see "Create the Depot Directory" .
# Using the Internet, go to the HP Software Depot web site http://software.hp.com, select the â Security and Manageabilityâ section, and choose the â HP-UX Host Intrusion Detection System (HP-UX HIDS) version 2.2â product.
# Using the instructions on the web site, download the product depot into /var/tmp/HPUX-HIDS_11i.depot.
# Copy the HP-UX HIDS product to your administration and agent depots, as appropriate.

1.Agent Depot

On your agent systems, copy the agent subproducts into ids_11i_agent depot:

# swcopy -s /var/tmp/idsprod/HPUX-HIDS_11i.depot IDS.IDS-Agent \
IDS.IDS-Doc @ /var/depot/ids_11i_agent

http://docs.hp.com/en/J5083-90014/ch02s06.html

-Arun

[Steven E. Protter]

Shiv,

You can make a temporary directory anywhere you want, so long as there is some space there.

Oracle installs let you set a variable called TEMP which directs temporary installation files to alternate locations. This is because Oracle requires 512 MB or more of temporary space and most sysadmins are not willing to waste that much on /tmp

Regards,

SEP

[Muthukumar_5]

/var/tmp is used to store log informations. Difference between /var/tmp and /tmp is on rebooting of system. Rebooting of system will remove all the files in the /tmp directory.

May be you can search with find as,

find / -type f -name "tmp"

-Muthu

[Shivkumar]

Actually, i saw someone assigning some temp directory while installing oracle (i am not able to recall the path). I wanted to know when /tmp directory is already available then why different temp directory is required for an application while installation.

[RAC_1]

Seperate temp area for installation may be required when current tmp area (for example /tmp) does not have enough free space as required by installation process.
So it is very much required to have seperate tmp area. As I said, most of the apps do that with TMPDIR variable and poiting it to desired dir.

[Arunvijai_4]

Shiv, This is because usually /tmp will be lesser size than of /var. Typically, /tmp will be around 400MB and /var will be of 4GB+. Huge installations such as Oracle require more tmp space, so we specify /var/tmp instead of /tmp.

Hope this is clear.

-Arun

[Arunvijai_4]

Some links about /var/tmp

http://www.pathname.com/fhs/2.2/fhs-5.15.html
(Purpose of /var/tmp)

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/1999/07/msg00402.html

-Arun

[Muthukumar_5]

/tmp directory is designated for all application temporary files. Few applications are written to use specific temp directories with designated disk space. It must need that directory with space. Else application has to be quit bcas of temporary space.

-Muthu

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi shiv,

also refer to metalink note:145487.1
"Files Types .t and .temp and .tmp, are Saving Under /var/tmp"

hope this helps too!

kind regards
yogeeraj

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Shiv:

Have a look at the 'hier(5)' manpages. These describe the HP-UX directory structure. You will note that '/tmp' is for system-generated temporary files whereas '/var/tmp' is for application-generated temporary files.

There is a symbolic link '/usr/tmp' that points to '/var/tmp'. It is actually a transtion link that will disappear in future releases, but it is probably the one you remember seeing.

Regards!

...JRF...

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again) SHiv:

By the way, files in '/tmp' are not necessarily cleared of their files during a reboot as suggested above. This is controlled by *you*.

To remove all files in '/tmp' during startup (boot), set CLEAR_TMP=1 in:

'/etc/rc.config.d/clean_tmps'

To *list* files in '/tmp', and any in '/var/tmp' set LIST_TEMPS=1.

The listing of files is written to '/etc/rc.log' for your review.

You can set or reset both the CLEAR and the LIST options as you see fit. I do *not* clear '/tmp' during startup. I don't want patches, etc. that I might have there disappearing before I want to remove them!

Regards!

...JRF...

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Shiv,

I agree with JRF.
It's always been my understanding that /tmp is *stictly* for the use of the OS whereas /var/tmp is for application use.
Applications should *never* use /tmp - either /var/tmp or any other directory it may choose.

My 2 cents,
Jeff

[Rory R Hammond]

If you look /usr/tmp is also a "temp" directory. On HPUX it is a symbolic link pointing to /var/tmp.

Note that on most systems /tmp is on a sperate file system, while /var/tmp is ussually located in /var. This is a subtle thing but important, temp files in /var/tmp can run /var out of space which can impact lots of applications quicker than if /var/tmp was a seperate file system.

An arguement can be made that many of the /var/spool directories are temp directories
for example /var/spool/mqueue.

When installing Oracle, you can set the TEMP env variable to point to a different location say "/usr/tmpi" , (Off the top my head not sure if it is TEMP or TMP), Oracle will put it's install information at that location. The advantage is when run multiple installs, you will not run /tmp out of space. In the past, I have ran /tmp out of space, so I started pointing env variable TEMP to a larger file system.

Rory