As part of my housekeeping routine, I dutifully run "wwwoffle -purge" once every week with the untouched default purge configuration in my "wwwoffle.conf" file (i.e.):
,----[ purge.txt ]- | use-mtime = no | | max-size = -1 | min-free = -1 | | use-url = no | | del-dontget = yes | del-dontcache = yes | | age = 4w | | compress-age = -1 `---- I thought that it worked. I get an impressive list of URLs flashing past with information on how many Kb have been deleted and how much room remains on the drive. However, I have just looked at the content of /var/spool/wwwoffle/http/ and find that it has grown (over the past year) to 264 Mb. It seems that the default setting of "use-mtime" may be to blame. However, if "access time" is the controlling factor in selecting candidates for purging, I fail to understand how aged files, like those listed below and of whose existence I have long ago ceased to be aware, are accessed routinely without any directive from me: ,----[ old_cache.txt ]- | drwxr-xr-x 2 daemon daemon 4096 Jul 21 2003 www.upi.com | drwxr-xr-x 2 daemon daemon 4096 Jul 21 2003 sunsite.dk | drwxr-xr-x 2 daemon daemon 4096 Jul 21 2003 z.about.com | drwxr-xr-x 2 daemon daemon 4096 Jul 21 2003 gardening.about.com | drwxr-xr-x 2 daemon daemon 4096 Jul 20 2003 canberraauctions.com.au | drwxr-xr-x 2 daemon daemon 4096 Jul 20 2003 207.36.6.4 | drwxr-xr-x 2 daemon daemon 4096 Jul 19 2003 www.mikerubel.org | drwxr-xr-x 2 daemon daemon 4096 Jul 18 2003 learn.to | drwxr-xr-x 2 daemon daemon 4096 Jul 18 2003 home.worldonline.dk `---- So, finally, my questions: - What was the rationale for basing the default purge configuration on access time rather than modification time? and - What am I likely to destroy by the setting "use-mtime=yes"? And suggestions to help with custom tweaks to the purge defaults: - Redirect the output of the purge command to a file; this can then be inspected at leisure to decide which URLs should be purged and which should be kept; and - Have a separate "Purge.txt" file - like the current "DontGet.txt" file in which the updated tweaks are entered. Felix Karpfen -- Felix Karpfen Public Key 72FDF9DF (DH/DSA)
