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nsg
Asked: 2011-03-20 12:50:57 +0800 CST

tmpreaper, --protect and a non-root user

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I'm a little confused. I have a download directory that I want to remove all files older then 30 days with tmpreaper. Just one problem, the directory in question is a separate partition with a lost+found directory, of course I need to keep it so I added --protect 'lost+found', the problem is that tmpreaper outputs:

error: chdir() to directory 'lost+found' (inode 11) failed: Permission denied
(PID 30604) Back from recursing down `lost+found'.
Entry matching `--protect' pattern skipped. `lost+found'

I have tried with other pattern like lost* and so on... I'm running tmpreaper as a non-root user because there is no reason for superuser privileges because I own all files (except lost+found).

Are I'm forced to run tmpreaper as root? Or are my shell-skills not as good as I thought? I guess the problem is:

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.

Any thought and/or advice?

The command I'm trying to run is something like

$ /usr/sbin/tmpreaper -t --protect 'lost+found' 30d /mydir 1> /dev/null
error: chdir() to directory `lost+found' (inode 11) failed: Permission denied

Edit:

Redmumba noticed that the return code is still zero, and the files are removed. I must have had some other issues before because nothing was removed when I wrote this post. Anyway it's working now, Thanks.

linux tmpwatch

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    The lost+found directory is file system specific and, even if you change the permissions, they will automatically be reverted back to root:root on a remount (or possibly even sooner). However, because it sounds like you DON'T want to remove things there, it sounds like it may be a problem with the directory you're specifying.

    For example, lets say you're removing the files inside /tmp, which is on a separate partition. If you run tmpreaper --protect 'lost+found' /tmp/*, it will chdir into /tmp/lost+found then apply the shell glob--but it will fail with the permissions issue you saw. When you specify the directory for tmpreaper, just use the parent directory--i.e., tmpreaper --protect 'lost+found' /tmp.

    Hopefully that's your problem... if not, update with more information (such as the exact command you're using) and we can try and get you back on track!

    EDIT: So I set it up locally, and I noticed that it finishes successfully. It appears that it only prints out the error message, but does not react to it--i.e., it returns 0, indicating success. I originally assumed it was failing, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It sounds like filing a bug might be in order with details, as I wouldn't imagine that this is intended behavior.

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