[GRASS-user] GRASS temp directory...

[Glynn Clements]

Hamish wrote:

> > I'm curious -- where does GRASS write its temporary files,
> 
> GRASS session variables go into /tmp/grass6-$USER-$PID/gisrc
> This is a very small file.
> 
> There is a bit in lib/init/init.sh that sets that, but the ability to
> change to $TMPDIR istead of /tmp/ has been commented out. (some mutli-user
> systems use a per-user tmp directory instead of a common one)
> 
> http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/browser/grass/branches/develbranch_6/lib/init/init.sh#L187
> 
> It is commented out because:
>   http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/16648
>   "revert $TMPDIR capability (instead of /tmp) until
>    lib/gis/unix_socks.c can be updated to use $TMPDIR too."

Note that lib/gis/unix_socks.c doesn't exist in 7.x; there was no need
for it once the monitors were eliminated.

> ISTR there was some discussion about that on the GRASS-dev mailing list
> at the time, check the Feb 2005 archives for more.

The problem with using $TMPDIR for sockets is that there is a limit on
the length of a pathname for a Unix-domain socket (108 bytes on
Linux). This can cause problems if TMPDIR is under $HOME and $HOME
itself is long (which is quite common with AFS).

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>