We are not having/getting a storage space error. On our dev site, the /tmp folder Drupal uses is practically empty. On the live server, it has hundreds, maybe thousands of files such as "fileDd7skt".

When I try to sudo rm fileD* for instance, I get no error just normal behavior as if the command worked. But when I ls again, the files are still there.

I've cleaned caches both with Drush within Drupal trying both "Clear all caches" in the admin toolbar as well as Site Configuration/Performance.

Has anybody else had this issue? It's only on the live server, not the dev.

T file system setting in Drupal is using this directory and all is working, but I know it eventually will be an issue as we had it come up for the first time a couple of months ago and because the temp directory gets full (again because of the # of files, not that it's passed it's allocated space allotment) it will not dump an entire database when backing up/pushing to live.

Any ideas?

Comments

VM’s picture

they are files that either weren't completely uploaded or weren't moved to the files folder for one reason or another. You can safely delete the contents.

you can utilize google to locate a script to run with a cron job to clean out the tmp folder from time to time.

thumbslinger’s picture

The problem is that I can't, Drupal (cron) can't remove them. I checked and changed permissions on the folder on the files themselves etc.

I can't seem to actually delete them. This is the folder set in Drupal admin/file-system. The files are on the server, not in the database .... is there some key/file in the actual Drupal database that could be restricting the cron from deleting them? Or something like that?

Just can't figure out why we cannot actually delete any files from that directory (nor the directory itself) no matter from sudo/root etc.

VM’s picture

I didn't state drupal cron. Drupal cron won't do anything with the tmp folder. My statement was in reference to running a cron job outside of drupal trough your hosting panel that runs a script that removes tmp files older than say 5 hours( chosen so that file sin process of being moved to the files directory aren't disturbed ). I understand that they (the tmp files) aren't in the drupal database. They wouldn't be as they are tmp files and weren't fully integrated into the Drupal file system for one reason or another.

Drupal defaults to the servers catch all tmp folder unless you've altered the default in administer -> file system. Is the current tmp folder above the drupal installation?

you may want to try using the hosts file manager to clean out the current tmp folder.

thumbslinger’s picture

I set the path as: /tmp in administer -> file system. It's only been in the last two months this has happened. I disabled all new mods added in that time just to check but besides new content being added to the database, there have been no changes to the server(s) at all.

We host our own servers. That's what I don't get. I've got all the access I would think I need.

I ssh into the server for edits such as these. sftp, though enabled, never shows these files.

We're on 5.5.24 mysql, Ubuntu0.12.04.1 and php 5.3. I'm wondering if there is some kind of setting in some config file but I've checked the php.ini so I'm not sure what else or where to check.

VM’s picture

if using ubuntu I'd run gksudo nautilus and see if I can remove the files. Else I'd ask in the ubuntu forums.