tmpwatch

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.

When changing directories, tmpwatch  is very sensitive to possible race conditions and will exit with an error if one is detected. It does not follow symbolic links in the directories it's cleaning (even if a symbolic link is given as its argument), will not switch filesystems, skips lost+found directories owned by the root user, and only removes empty directories, regular files, and symbolic links.

By default, tmpwatch  dates files by their atime (access time), not their mtime (modification time). If files aren't being removed when ls -l  implies they should be, use ls -u  to examine their atime to see if that explains the problem.

If the --atime, --ctime or --mtime options are used in combination, the decision about deleting a file will be based on the maximum of these times. The --dirmtime option implies ignoring atime of directories, even if the --atime option is used.

The time parameter defines the threshold for removing files. If the file has not been accessed for time, the file is removed. The time argument is a number with an optional single-character suffix specifying the units: m  for minutes, h  for hours, d  for days. If no suffix is specified, time is in hours.

Following this, one or more directories may be given for tmpwatch  to clean up.

Options

-u, --atime 

Make the decision about deleting a file based on the file's atime (access time). This is the default.

Note that the periodic updatedb  file system scans keep the atime of directories recent.

-m, --mtime 

Make the decision about deleting a file based on the file's mtime (modification time) instead of the atime.

-c, --ctime 

Make the decision about deleting a file based on the file's ctime (inode change time) instead of the atime; for directories, make the decision based on the mtime.

-M, --dirmtime 

Make the decision about deleting a directory based on the directory's mtime (modification time) instead of the atime; completely ignore atime for directories.

-a, --all 

Remove all file types, not just regular files, symbolic links and directories.

-d, --nodirs 

Do not attempt to remove directories, even if they are empty.

-f, --force 

Remove files even if root doesn't have write access (akin to rm -f).

-l, --nosymlinks 

Do not attempt to remove symbolic links.

-q, --quiet 

Report only fatal errors.

-s, --fuser 

Attempt to use the "fuser" command to see if a file is already open before removing it. Not enabled by default. Does help in some circumstances, but not all. Dependent on fuser being installed in /sbin. Not supported on HP-UX or Solaris.

-t, --test 

Don't remove files, but go through the motions of removing them. This implies -v.

-U, --exclude-user=user

Don't remove files owned by user, which can be an user name or numeric user ID.

-v, --verbose 

Print a verbose display. Two levels of verboseness are available -- use this option twice to get the most verbose output.

-x, --exclude=path

Skip path; if path is a directory, all files contained in it are skipped too. If path does not exist, it must be an absolute path that contains no symbolic links.

-X, --exclude-pattern=pattern

Skip paths matching pattern; if a directory matches pattern, all files contained in it are skipped too. pattern must match an absolute path that contains no symbolic links.

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Last modified: March 12, 2019