[McIDAS #UDT-874841]: Question about mctmp directory

Greetings,

> I noticed that we have a very large number of files and directories in 
> /home/ldm/.mctmp. Do these need to be scoured regularly? And if so, for how 
> many days do we need to save?


The purpose of the .mctmp directory is explained here (search for mctmp): 
https://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mcidas/doc/users_guide/current/users_guide.pdf

In short, as the name implies this is a directory that is intended to store 
temporary files.  The following line reinforces that notion:
  "The directory and its files are deleted when you end the McIDAS-X session."

Also:
  "The mcclean program is run to delete any inactive .mctmp directories it 
finds and remove any shared memory segments associated with the directories. 
Typically, there will not be any inactive temporary directories, but if a 
session ends in a catastrophic manner (e.g., with kill -9) the temporary 
directory may not be deleted."

So there is also a utility for cleaning up those directories.


As far as your particular situation, I think that's more up to you than 
anything else, though I suspect most of what's in there can be safely removed.  
I can't say for sure though since I don't know what's in that directory.  So 
you'll have to use your judgement on if something should stay or go.

I will add that looking through SSEC's documentation that it feels like this is 
in reference to a GUI session of McIDAS-X, though I could be wrong.  I don't 
think you do that all too often, so it could be enlightening to check the 
date/time on those files to see if it at all correlates to when you run a GUI 
session.  I also know your site uses a lot of batch files and shell scripts to 
invoke them, and it's possible those shell scripts are defining and using the 
mctmp directory.  Since the full path you specified is /home/ldm/.mctmp, that 
indicates these processes are running as the ldm user (do the files inside 
mctmp match?).


I guess the bottom line here is those are probably just temporary files that 
can be removed, but I cannot say for sure so you'll have to use your best 
judgement.  There is other guidance on this topic in the above-linked SSEC 
document that should help you better understand these concepts.

Hope this helps!

Best,
-Mike

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: UDT-874841
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed
===================
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