Uses of the tmp folder

[Gwaihir]

I think this is a topic on it's own. The quote is from the discussion on PHP going CGI.

And session.save_path should remain as it is. The one used by some clients under tmp folder is not a good place and can break things because tmp is for stats.

That goes for subfolders under tmp too? Mine where in /home/<username>/tmp/sessions and I've got a number of other tmp stuffs stashed away likewise. Should I avoid using /home/<accountname>/tmp altogether and just make a /home/<accountname>/tmp_ofmyown for that stuff?

If so, I must say that seems a bit confusing to me. Would it be possible NOT to name tmp tmp, if that's not exactly what it means? And / or could its use be documented some place? Documenting what exactly it is seems like a good idea anyway, as that particular folder tends to get huge on people at times and it's not quite clear what one can and cannot delete in there without consequences. (I.e. which files are actual stats that will be lost when deleted and which are auto-generated tables, images and such.)

[rainboy]

You will keep using the tmp directory as usual, only the files written in there will have your userid instead of the nobody userid. So there you have one of the security aspects i do not like about php cgi, you will now be able to see all the acount names on the server which use the /tmp/ for their temporary session files.

Kindest regards,
Patrick

[Gwaihir]

I'm speaking of the tmp folder in my account, not the server wide one.

[rainboy]

sorry, missed that part

[Gwaihir]

Updated first post to make it slightly clearer

[Vin DSL]

Now you're confusing me...

Personally, I don't keep anything in tmp/, i.e. as masood said, that's where JagPC stores the stats for your account. Why would you want to 'stash' your stuff there, or even in a child?

[Vin DSL]

I was just thinking...

If you're hung up on the name, how about a .tmp/ folder?

I just created one...

[Gwaihir]

Why would you want to 'stash' your stuff there, or even in a child?

Well, it's just the normal place on a *nix system to stash temporary files. Which is also why I presume other people are sticking stuffs in there.

I've no problem not doing it, now I know it's not a good idea here. I'm just wondering out loud a) how bad an idea it is around here and b) whether there shouldn't be some sort of warning sign somewhere if it's really bad.

That warning could either be written some place, or made obsolete by naming that folder stats (or something) instead. Renaming seems best from a user's perspective, but it could be that WHM/cPanel or something else beyond my view makes that hard to do.