3 ms·

I've had cases where /tmp was full, usually by some runaway program that didn't clean up properly. The first indicator is usually that Bash auto-complete fails,

I've had cases where /tmp was full, usually by some runaway program that didn't clean up properly. The first indicator is usually that Bash auto-complete fails, followed by no one being able to SSH into the machine. I suppose mounting /tmp in RAM means this will happen more often (as RAM is usually smaller than hard drive space), but I don't see this becoming a giant issue. Now, auto-cleaning /var/tmp... that's going to cause SO MUCH data loss across people I know. I see a parallel with keeping files in your Desktop: yes, that's not what it's there for and ideally you'd store things properly, but you don't go around deleting people's documents just because you don't like it! Time to start sending warning E-Mails, I guess.

camel-cdr 2y ago
I quickly ran a backup just now, but I would've been one of the people slightly effected. I symlink some of the desktop cache files to /var/tmp, but since that never got deleted for me (on Debian and Manjaro) I also started linking things like my browser profile there. I kind of knew that /var/tmp may not be the correct folder for it, but if it works, it works you know. A bit of background on my setup, for why I even want to create such symlinks. My home folder is on an automatically mounted USB stick that I transfer between systems (laptop and desktop). On shutdown, I rsync the home folder to a local backup folder, which gives me a small distributed backup system. Using the same home directory between systems with different distributions and CPU architectures (I'm using the pinebook pro arm laptop) works surprisingly well. But I'd rather not stress the USB stick with a bunch of frequently accessed cache files, hence the symlink. I end up also symlinking the browser profile, because that caused version incompatibilities between systems, and I'm ok with having local browser settings/history on each device.
- somat 2y ago
  I sort of do the same thing, See, I like my homedir on a nfs share. (my philosophy is build one really good drive, raid, backups etc, then everything can use that, rather than try and put a good drive into everything) However there is stuff I don't really care about but would like to be fast and don't want eating my bandwidth, caches mainly, Now unlike you I tried to stay out of tmp so I made a /var/home/ on a fast local drive that vaguely mirrors /home and symlink the caches into it. That way it makes a good dedicated space for when I do want a fast local filesystem. As an antidote I had a hard time for a few years after I stopped using irix, I wanted(or at least my fingers wanted) the home directories to be under /usr/people
Joker_vD 2y ago
> I see a parallel with keeping files in your Desktop: yes, that's not what it's there for and ideally you'd store things properly Wait, what is Desktop for, then? Application shortcuts? We already have "pin to taskbar" for that.
- jasomill 2y ago
  On the original Macintosh, the idea was that you'd move files you're currently working with onto the desktop, then return them to their original folders when finished. The original Mac Finder even had a "Put Away" command to support this workflow. I believe this idea partially arose by analogy with physical workflows, and partially as a way to more easily work with related files spread across multiple floppy disks: desktop items remained visible when a floppy was ejected, and the system would prompt for the floppy by name if you attempted to access a file on an ejected floppy (ejected floppies themselves remained visible on the desktop until you dragged their icons to the trash). [Pedantically, the original (System 1.0) Mac Finder had a more general, slightly buggy "Put Back" command, removed in System 2.0, and finally replaced with the "Put Away" command in System 2.1. Source: past experience verified through testing at [1]] [1] https://infinitemac.org https://infinitemac.org

camel-cdr 2y ago

I quickly ran a backup just now, but I would've been one of the people slightly effected. I symlink some of the desktop cache files to /var/tmp, but since that never got deleted for me (on Debian and Manjaro) I also started linking things like my browser profile there. I kind of knew that /var/tmp may not be the correct folder for it, but if it works, it works you know. A bit of background on my setup, for why I even want to create such symlinks. My home folder is on an automatically mounted USB stick that I transfer between systems (laptop and desktop). On shutdown, I rsync the home folder to a local backup folder, which gives me a small distributed backup system. Using the same home directory between systems with different distributions and CPU architectures (I'm using the pinebook pro arm laptop) works surprisingly well. But I'd rather not stress the USB stick with a bunch of frequently accessed cache files, hence the symlink. I end up also symlinking the browser profile, because that caused version incompatibilities between systems, and I'm ok with having local browser settings/history on each device.

somat 2y ago
I sort of do the same thing, See, I like my homedir on a nfs share. (my philosophy is build one really good drive, raid, backups etc, then everything can use that, rather than try and put a good drive into everything) However there is stuff I don't really care about but would like to be fast and don't want eating my bandwidth, caches mainly, Now unlike you I tried to stay out of tmp so I made a /var/home/ on a fast local drive that vaguely mirrors /home and symlink the caches into it. That way it makes a good dedicated space for when I do want a fast local filesystem. As an antidote I had a hard time for a few years after I stopped using irix, I wanted(or at least my fingers wanted) the home directories to be under /usr/people

Joker_vD 2y ago

> I see a parallel with keeping files in your Desktop: yes, that's not what it's there for and ideally you'd store things properly Wait, what is Desktop for, then? Application shortcuts? We already have "pin to taskbar" for that.

jasomill 2y ago
On the original Macintosh, the idea was that you'd move files you're currently working with onto the desktop, then return them to their original folders when finished. The original Mac Finder even had a "Put Away" command to support this workflow. I believe this idea partially arose by analogy with physical workflows, and partially as a way to more easily work with related files spread across multiple floppy disks: desktop items remained visible when a floppy was ejected, and the system would prompt for the floppy by name if you attempted to access a file on an ejected floppy (ejected floppies themselves remained visible on the desktop until you dragged their icons to the trash). [Pedantically, the original (System 1.0) Mac Finder had a more general, slightly buggy "Put Back" command, removed in System 2.0, and finally replaced with the "Put Away" command in System 2.1. Source: past experience verified through testing at [1]] [1] https://infinitemac.org https://infinitemac.org