Provided by: tmpreaper_1.6.17_amd64 bug

NAME

       tmpreaper - removes files which haven't been accessed for a period of time

SYNOPSIS

       tmpreaper  [-htvfmMsaT]  [--help] [--test] [--verbose] [--force] [--delay=x] [--runtime=x]
       [--showdeleted]  [--ctime]  [--mtime]  [--mtime-dir]  [--symlinks]   [--all]   [[--protect
       '<shell_pattern>']...]  <time_spec> <dirs>...

DESCRIPTION

       tmpreaper  recursively  searches for and removes files and empty directories which haven't
       been accessed for a given number of seconds.  Normally, it's used to clean up  directories
       which  are  used  for  temporary  holding space, such as "/tmp".  Please read the WARNINGS
       section of this manual.

       When changing directories, tmpreaper is very sensitive to possible race condition security
       exploits[1],  and will exit with an error if one is detected.  It does not follow symbolic
       links in the directories it's cleaning (even if a symbolic link is given as its argument),
       never  performs  chdir(".."),  will  not  switch  file  systems,  and  only  removes empty
       directories and regular files.  Unless  your  machine  is  one  with  lots  of  relatively
       untrusted users, such as an ISP or school, you don't need this program; `find ... -exec rm
       ...' works just as well when you don't have to be concerned about people trying to exploit
       the race condition on you.

       tmpreaper will stop itself after almost one minute with an appropriate warning message, as
       attempts to keep it running long enough so that it runs in parallel with another  instance
       of  itself  may also lead to possible vulnerabilities. Normally, tmpreaper won't need that
       amount of time.  If your system is so slow that it does, try to configure things  so  that
       this  doesn't  happen.  As  a  last  resort, the --runtime=x option can be used to set the
       number of seconds after which the timeout occurs; the default setting is 55 seconds.

       tmpreaper dates files by their atime, not their  mtime,  unless  you  select  the  --mtime
       option.   If  files aren't being removed when ls -l implies they should be, use stat(1) or
       ls --time=access to examine the file's atime and see if that helps to explain the problem.

       Additionally, tmpreaper can be instructed to also check  the  ctime  (inode  change  time,
       which  is  updated  e.g.  when  the  file  is created or permissions are changed). This is
       primarily useful when tmpreaper is used to clean up directories that are accessible  as  a
       Samba  share; DOS (and Windows) PCs preserve the mtime and the atime when copying to a new
       file, so that it appears that the newly created file is old.  tmpreaper will  remove  such
       files if the atime is beyond the removal time, even though they were just created. This is
       avoided by using the --ctime option.

       As testing the contents of subdirectories will  update  those  directories'  atime,  empty
       directories  won't  be  removed.  To  circumvent  this problem you can use the --mtime-dir
       option, which will switch on mtime checking for directories  only.  Using  --mtime-dir  in
       addition to --mtime doesn't do anything useful.

       The  <time_spec>  parameter  defines the age threshold for removing files. If the file has
       not been accessed for <time_spec>, it  becomes  eligible  for  removal.   The  <time_spec>
       should  be  a  number,  defaulting to hours, optionally suffixed by one character: `d' for
       days, `h' for hours, `m' for minutes, or `s' for seconds.  Following the time option,  one
       or more directories must be given for tmpreaper to clean up.

       On  linux  ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystems, no errors will be given when trying to remove files
       marked as immutable. A common situation for this was  the  ext3  .journal  file.  However,
       there may of course be other files marked as such by the system administrator.

OPTIONS

       <noargs>, -h, --help
              Print  a  brief  version,  copyright, and usage statement on stderr, then exit with
              error status 1.

       -t, --test
              Don't actually remove any files, but go through the motions, checking  through  the
              directory, then pretend to remove the eligible files.

       -v, --verbose
              Print  a  verbose  display. Two levels of verbosity are available---use this option
              twice to get the most verbose output.  The --test option automaticly sets --verbose
              once.
              Higher numbers mean more output (max. is 3).
              To  force  normal  verbosity  after --test, use "--verbose=0".  This will generally
              only show  error  messages.  Use  "--test  --verbose=0  --showdeleted"  to  give  a
              shellscript-like  list  of actions that would have been done (see the --showdeleted
              description below).

       --showdeleted
              Show what files and directories are deleted. The output is in  the  form  of  shell
              commands, i.e. "rm /dir/dir2/file" and "rmdir /dir/dir2".
              When  used  together with --test, this option will still cause the "shell commands"
              to be printed, although nothing is really done. Note that this may show  more  than
              without  --test,  as  problems  removing the file won't be detected (e.g. immutable
              files).

       -f, --force
              Remove files even if EUID doesn't have write access (akin  to  rm  -f).   Normally,
              files owned by the current EUID, with no write bit set are not removed.

       --delay=x
              Delay  execution  at  the  start for a random time, up to x seconds; if no value is
              specified, the default maximum time to delay is 256 seconds.   This  is  an  option
              useful  in  cron  scripts to make the execution of tmpreaper less predictable, thus
              making things a little harder for those who  would  attempt  to  use  tmpreaper  to
              thwart security.

       -T x, --runtime=x
              Execution  of  tmpreaper  will  aborted after x seconds; this is to prevent attacks
              that create many, many files.  By default the timeout is  set  to  55  seconds.   A
              value of 0 will disable this feature, which is not advised as this feature prevents
              possible race-conditions between different instances of tmpreaper.

       -m, --mtime
              Base the decision of whether to remove the file on its mtime, rather  than  on  its
              atime.

       -M, --mtime-dir
              Base  the  decision of whether to remove the directory on its mtime, rather than on
              its atime.

       -c, --ctime
              Base the decision of whether to remove the file on its ctime, in  addition  to  its
              atime.  Only applicable if the --mtime options is not given!

       -s, --symlinks
              Remove symlinks too, not just regular files and directories.

       -a, --all
              Remove all file types, not just regular files, symlinks, and directories.

       --protect '<shell_pattern>'
              Protect the files that match the <shell_pattern> from deletion.  This option may be
              used more than once.  It has no one letter abbreviation, you  must  spell  out  the
              full word "protect".

              If  you do not enclose the <shell_pattern> in single quotes, the shell will perform
              the expansion before tmpreaper reads its argument  array.   The  program  does  not
              support that syntax, so you must use single quotes around the glob pattern.

              tmpreaper  will chdir(2) into each of the directories you've specified for cleanup,
              and check for files matching the <shell_pattern> there.  It then builds a  list  of
              them, and uses that to protect them from removal.  For example:

              tmpreaper --test --verbose --protect \
               '.X*-{lock,unix,unix/*}' --protect '.ICE-{unix{/*,}}' \
               5d /tmp  # 5 day grace period

TIPS

       As  long  as there are files present inside a subdirectory, it won't get removed.  You can
       use a non-writable, self-owned file, perhaps named ".tmpreaper", or, if you are su, a file
       that  has  the  ext2fs immutable attribute set, to keep a subdirectory from being deleted.
       Of course, you could just as easily use use  the  --protect  option  to  obtain  the  same
       result.

       Because  the  command  line argument processing is implemented with GNU getopt_long(3)[2],
       you may order the arguments thusly, if it pleases you:

       tmpreaper --test --verbose 5h \
        --protect './tmp/{blah?,dir{/blah4,}}' ./tmp \
        --protect '/tmp/.X*' /tmp

        ... Note that if you use --all or --symlinks, it will have global effect.   If  you  only
       want it turned on for one directory, you must use separate commands.

WARNINGS

       Please do not ever run tmpreaper on `/'!!! There are no safeguards against this built into
       the program, because that would make it difficult to use in a chrooted environment.

SEE ALSO

       chattr(1) chdir(2) chroot(8) cron(1) getopt_long(3) ls(1) lsattr(1) rm(1) stat(1)

       [1]  http://seclists.org/lists/bugtraq/1996/May/0046.html or
            http://www.security-express.com/archives/bugtraq/1996_2/0054.html

            http://linuxgazette.net/18/tmp.html
            (formerly http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue18/tmp.html)

            http://linuxgazette.net/20/followup.html

       [2] info:(libc)Long Options

AUTHOR

           Karl M. Hegbloom <karlheg@debian.org>

       Mostly based on `tmpwatch-1.2/1.4', by:
           Erik Troan <ewt@redhat.com>

       Now being maintained for Debian by:
           Paul Slootman <paul@debian.org>