TMPWATCH(8)                                           TMPWATCH(8)

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

SYNOPSIS
       tmpwatch [-favq] [--verbose] [--force] [--all] [--test]
                      [--quiet] <hours> <dirs>

DESCRIPTION
       tmpwatch recursively  removes  files  which  haven't  been
       accessed  for a given number of hours. Normally, it's used
       to clean up directories which are used for temporary hold-
       ing 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), will not switch filesystems,
        and only removes empty directories and regular files.

       tmpwatch  dates  files by their atime, not their mtime. If
       files aren't being removed when ls -l implies they  should
       be,  use stat(1) to examine the files atime to see if that
       explains the problem.

       The hours parameter defines  the  threshold  for  removing
       files.  If the file has not been accessed for hours hours,
       the file is removed.  Following this, one or more directo-
       ries may be given for tmpwatch to clean up.

OPTIONS
       -a, --all
              Remove  all  file types, not just regular files and
              directories.

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

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

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

SEE ALSO
       cron(1), ls(1), rm(1), stat(1)

AUTHORS
       Erik Troan <ewt@redhat.com>
       Preston Brown <pbrown@redhat.com>

                         Thu Apr 08 1999                        1