Temporary file for Acrobad Reader 4.0 on HPUX 1..0: how to delete them

[Massimo Bianchi]

Hi all,
one of my customer installed Acrobat Readr 4.0 on his HPUX 11.0 servers.

He use it to generate PDF files, converting them from PS (from SAP) to PDF (to be given away for remote printing).

He set up the printer to do this translation.

Unfortunalty this software creates some temporary files in /tmp, named /tmp/AcroaNNNNN

where NNNNN is a changing number, i think it can be the pid of the generating process.

Now, this files are full-ing my /tmp.

We already have a cron schedule that deletes them, but I wuold like a solution, not a workaround :)

If there is a way to have them not created, or removed after the use....

Thanks !
Massimo

[Massimo Bianchi]

Time for a ping :)

Massimo

[Patrick Wallek]

Is there possibly some environment variable you could set to tell it to use some dir other than /tmp?

Maybe something like:

# export TMP_DIR=/acro/tmp

That may allow you to create a directory / LV specifically for this process and leave it up to the user to clean it out occasionally.

[Massimo Bianchi]

Thanks Patrick,
but the users (SAP users) do not even know what a lv is. We must automate this process, and we already have a cron script that does the cleaning.

I'm looking for a way (or a patch) to have those file deleted automatically, without the fear of the /tmp, or whatever lv, going full.

Massimo

[Darren Prior]

Hi Massimo,

This sounds like an application problem to me, it's unlikely that you'll find a solution from the OS!

I'd suggest you ask on Adobe's customer forums http://www.adobe.com/support/main.html

regards,

Darren.

[Massimo Bianchi]

Thanks Darren,
i'm already looking there but that site is awfull :(

Now i'm downloading acrobat 5.07 for hpux, maybe it won't have that problem...

Massimo

[Bernhard Mueller]

Basically I would leave that with a cleanup cronjob. However, IF you can make sure that it is the pid that is appended to the name, you could write a litte daemon script checking for the pid and if it does not exist any longer delete the file.

[Reinhard Burger]

Hi Massimo
We are using Acrobat Exchange on HP-UX 11 to create the pdf files. This is done by creating temporarly shell scripts that contain the runstring for acrobat Exchange what is producing the pdf file. The shell script itself knows names of all files temporarly used and is cleaning up all with one exception. The exception is the script itself.
It is always archived because of user requested so.

If you can use just one shell script and to create the print jobs and pass everything as param then this generic script should be able to clean off all not further used files.
The other (easiest) option is : as you did : use a cron job.

[Massimo Bianchi]

Thanks Reinard,
i'm trying to achieve something similar.


My customer created a lp model at hpux level, and this printer is used directly by SAP users.

SAP creates a pdf file, then Acrobat Reader is user to convert from pdf to ps.

The string in the lp model is

##################################
eval cat $FILENAME | /opt/Acrobat4/bin/acroread -toPostScript -fast -shrink -level2 >> /fullpath/destination.ps
###################################

But unfortunatly in this file i have no way to know which file it is using.
I also checked /opt/Acrobat4/bin/acroread, but is a script that, at last, calls a binary and there is no hint to the name of the temporary file; there are references to the location of tmp files, but that's all.

Massimo

[Reinhard Burger]

Hi Massimo

Here the small script we use for printing

cat $1 | /opt/ADOBE/Acrobat3/bin/acroexch -toPostScript -level2 -size a4 | lp -datlas_1 -onb

as you see we still use acrobat 3
In there you can use as well acroread which is in our case nothing more then a symbolic link to acroexch

Using this small script does not create a file it is passing the postscript directly to thelp spooler. You can modify it to not use the printer queue hardcoded

[Massimo Bianchi]

Thanks.

But, for curiosity, do you have any file called /tmp/Acroa###### ?

May be it depends from the Acrobat Version....

Massimo

[RolandH]

Hi Massimo,

you said the customer has setup the printer.
Can you do an lpstat -t|grep "device for "

my shows this

# lpstat -t |grep "device for ljpuppis"
device for ljpuppis: /dev/null

You see the device is /dev/null

What's yours

Roland

[RolandH]

Hi Massimo,

if want the extended help from the acrobat bin do this

# ./acroread -helpall

there are two parameters

-tempFile
and
-tempFile

Perhaps this is the Key for your Problem.


Roland

[RolandH]

Small correction

-tempFile
and
-tempFileTitle


Roland

[Reinhard Burger]

Good question

I have checked this and ...

unfortunally yes we get these files as well.
one way to handle this is to improve the script with a second line

like :

find /tmp -name "Acro*" -a -mtime 1 -exec rm {} \;

This will automatically remove files older then 24 hours. This way it just leaves the files from yesterday on your system

[Reinhard Burger]

Once again me

I have checked the tip from Roland on our sandpit and found that this option is related to the gui of Acroread. It is just suppressing that files named after -tenpfile is shown in the Recent Files list in Menue files of the gui
Looks like there is no other option then using one of the workarounds that have been deiscussed here. And i have to do something as well ( that's my learning from this)

[Massimo Bianchi]

Thanks Roland,
but

-tempFile
Indicates files listed on the command line are temporary files
and should not be put in the recent file list. The document
title will be the title in the pdf document, instead of the
filename.
-tempFileTitle

[Massimo Bianchi]

Hi Roland,
just

> lpstat -t | grep MY_NAME
device for MY_NAME: /dev/null
MY_NAME accepting requests since Jan 7 11:49
printer MY_NAME is idle. enabled since May 12 11:53

I knew that....

Massimo

[RolandH]

Hey Massimo,

I have described here a solution I have tested and installed in my environment. It works great.




http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x0b1f4b3ef09fd611abdb0090277a778c,00.html



Roland

[Massimo Bianchi]

Closing....