On Jan 25, 2011, at 01:25 , Fischlin Andreas wrote: > This is done the old-fashioned Unix way and has nothing to do with RAM. I > never heard that a file is lost because the system takes it away while you > are using it.
Then I guess you heard it here first, eh? On UNIX, you can delete (unlink) an open file so it is no longer visible in the file system, but it's not really gone until all applications close it. This is a standard trick to make temporary files go away when you quit or crash an application. > AFAIK the rule is that the resource a temporary file has been using (disk > space, and if RAM or virtual memory would be involved, this is arbitrated by > the system and users should not meddle with this) is basically released, as > soon as the temporary file is closed. Since quitting an application > implicitly also closes normally all its files, they are released to be > possibly deleted whenever the system sees fit. The system unlinks all files older than 3 days in the temporary directory, which doesn't affect open files (although IIRC it will screw up file packages if you only have a single file in it open). IIRC the schedule is in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.bsd.dirhelper.plist. It has nothing to do with quitting an application; the PDF files that I just downloaded are still there after quitting the browser and the PDF viewers. > AFAIK applications can also create their own temporary folders within > /private/tmp and if that application quits, that folder is released for > subsequent deletion too, including all the files it may have contained. > That's the price you have to pay for a system conveniently cleaning up to > free resources for other uses. Moreover, the entire folder /private/tmp is > AFAIK deleted at each restart. The contents of /tmp are removed on reboot, but this is not where WebKit browsers download PDF. You should be able to get to the folder they use with $TMPDIR. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Special Offer-- Download ArcSight Logger for FREE (a $49 USD value)! Finally, a world-class log management solution at an even better price-free! Download using promo code Free_Logger_4_Dev2Dev. Offer expires February 28th, so secure your free ArcSight Logger TODAY! http://p.sf.net/sfu/arcsight-sfd2d _______________________________________________ Skim-app-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/skim-app-users
