I think your problem, Richard, is that your system has put something in /var/tmp that is badly out of whack with its stated purpose — which is to provide a “temporary” location on persistent media. Using a USB stick here is inappropriate for a general purpose system, unless there are no other options.
If you’re doing a big compile, you *might* want to use /tmp — *IF* you have enough RAM. Here’s a hint — if that big compile is *illumos* you better have > 4G RAM there. These days that’s not such a big deal, although I used to regularly build illumos in VM environments with only 2 or 4 GB RAM. Which worked fine as long as $TMP was in /var. (Mostly owing to enormous intermediate files created by lint.) On Wed, Oct 21, 2015 at 2:33 PM, Richard PALO <[email protected]> wrote: > Le 21/10/15 18:39, Garrett D'Amore a écrit : > > /var/tmp is the most appropriate definition for this, at least > “universally”. > > > > /tmp is not persistent, and use of RAM for large temporary files may be > in appropriate. The output from lint, for example, can be huge. Totally > inappropriate for RAM, especially since its already going to be cached in > buffer cache or ARC (depending on filesystem). > > > > Making /var/tmp be something that is appropriate for this type of usage > is part of the role of system administration. If your /var/tmp filesystem > is something that is inappropriate for hosting scratch files, then you’re > not administering your system properly (or your distro builder has done you > a disservice.) > > > > If in your environment you prefer all such files live non-persistently > in RAM, feel free to make /var/tmp a pointer to /tmp. Or just mount a new > tmpfs filesystem over it. > > > > Changing the “default” globally for illumos is incorrect. (And yes, its > quite possible that SmartOS gets this “wrong”, if it uses a USB flash media > or somesuch. But I *suspect* the intent is that this is only this way in > the GZ, where the use of tmp files ought to be rather limited — and that > instead you should be using the zones pool to host a “real” /var/tmp. In > that context, SmartOS *doesn’t* get it wrong, at least IMO.) > > > > /tmp is defined as non-persistent, the contrary of /var/tmp > Don't really understand the point. > > Got a like the comment in the *BSD stdio.h headers: > > >/* System V/ANSI C; this is the wrong way to do this, do *not* use these. > */ > >.. > >#define P_tmpdir "blah..blah..." > > FreeBSD defines P_tmpdir to "/tmp/" > and NetBSD defines it to "/var/tmp/" > > Linux? haven't found a standard definition yet. > > sigh...nice to know everybody, everywhere, has a differing opinion. > excepting the use of TMPDIR to clear it up. what a pickle;b > > -- > Richard PALO > ------------------------------------------- illumos-discuss Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/182180/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/182180/21175430-2e6923be Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21175430&id_secret=21175430-6a77cda4 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
