TMPWATCH(8)						   System Administrator's Manual					       TMPWATCH(8)

NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

       tmpwatch [-u|-m|-c] [-MUXadfqstvx] [--verbose] [--force] [--all]
		      [--nodirs] [--nosymlinks] [--test] [--fuser] [--quiet]
		      [--atime|--mtime|--ctime] [--dirmtime] [--exclude path]
		      [--exclude-user user] [--exclude-pattern pattern]
		      time dirs

DESCRIPTION

       tmpwatch  recursively  removes  files  which haven't been accessed for a given time.  Normally, it's used to clean up directories which are
       used for temporary holding space such as /tmp.

       When changing directories, tmpwatch is very sensitive to possible race conditions 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), does not switch filesystems
       (including non-trivial bind mounts), skips lost+found directories owned by the root user,  and  only  removes  empty  directories,  regular
       files, symbolic links, and on some systems also unused sockets.

       By  default,  tmpwatch dates files by their atime (access time), not their mtime (modification time). If files aren't being removed when ls
       -l implies they should be, use ls -u to examine their atime to see if that explains the problem.

       If the --atime, --ctime or --mtime options are used in combination, the decision about deleting a file will be  based  on  the  maximum	of
       these times.  The --dirmtime option implies ignoring atime of directories, even if the --atime option is used.

       The  time  parameter  defines the threshold for removing files.	If the file has not been accessed for time, the file is removed.  The time
       argument is a number with an optional single-character suffix specifying the units: m for minutes, h for hours, d for days.  If	no  suffix
       is specified, time is in hours.

       Following this, one or more directories may be given for tmpwatch to clean up.

OPTIONS

       -u, --atime
	      Make the decision about deleting a file based on the file's atime (access time). This is the default.

	      Note that the periodic updatedb file system scans keep the atime of directories recent.

       -m, --mtime
	      Make the decision about deleting a file based on the file's mtime (modification time) instead of the atime.

       -c, --ctime
	      Make  the  decision  about deleting a file based on the file's ctime (inode change time) instead of the atime; for directories, make
	      the decision based on the mtime.

       -M, --dirmtime
	      Make the decision about deleting a directory based on the directory's mtime (modification time) instead  of  the	atime;	completely
	      ignore atime for directories.

       -a, --all
	      Remove all file types, not just regular files, symbolic links and directories.  On systems where tmpwatch can remove unused sockets,
	      make the decision only based on file times, ignoring possible use of the socket.

       -d, --nodirs
	      Do not attempt to remove directories, even if they are empty.

       -f, --force
	      Remove root-owned files even if root doesn't have write access (akin to rm -f).

       -l, --nosymlinks
	      Do not attempt to remove symbolic links.

       -q, --quiet
	      Report only fatal errors.

       -s, --fuser
	      Attempt to use the "fuser" command to see if a file is already open before removing it.  Not enabled by default.	 Does help in some
	      circumstances, but not all.  Dependent on fuser being installed in /sbin.  Not supported on HP-UX or Solaris.

       -t, --test
	      Don't remove files, but go through the motions of removing them. This implies -v.

       -U, --exclude-user=user
	      Don't remove files owned by user, which can be an user name or numeric user ID.

       -v, --verbose
	      Print a verbose display. Two levels of verboseness are available -- use this option twice to get the most verbose output.

       -x, --exclude=path
	      Skip  path;  if path is a directory, all files contained in it are skipped too.  If path does not exist, it must be an absolute path
	      that contains no symbolic links.

       -X, --exclude-pattern=pattern
	      Skip paths matching pattern; if a directory matches pattern, all files contained in it are skipped too.  pattern must match an abso-
	      lute path that contains no symbolic links.

SEE ALSO

       cron(1), ls(1), rm(1), fuser(1)

AUTHORS

       Erik Troan <ewt@redhat.com>
       Preston Brown <pbrown@redhat.com>
       Nalin Dahyabhai <nalin@redhat.com>
       Miloslav Trmac <mitr@redhat.com>

4th Berkeley Distribution					    2009-10-15							       TMPWATCH(8)