Tomcat: Configuring temp folder

Question

I have some webservices running on tomcat that make tasks on a quite big repository. After a few days of run I realized that the tomcat temp folder ($CATALINA_HOME/temp) contains a huge amount of files which may affect the server behavior. Is there any way to configure the temp folder in order to delete files older then a certain amount of time or to disable the temp folder if it's not needed?

Answer 1

If your files' life-times are max "10" minutes then you can use below cron job to periodically clean your temp directory.

Let's say your tomcat's temp directory is "/usr/server/tomcat7/temp":

Cron job notation:

0 1 * * * find /usr/server/tomcat7/temp -type f -mmin +10 -delete

Code description:

• 0 1 * * * --> everyday at 1am
  
• find /usr/server/tomcat7/temp --> find files in directory "/usr/server/tomcat7/temp"
  
• -type f --> only the items whiches' types are "file"
• -mmin +10 --> only the ones older than "10" minutes
• -delete --> delete them
  
  

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For the ones who are new to Cron:

How to set the Cron job (Centos version):

• If not installed, install with sudo yum install cron
• Open cron configuration file with crontab -e (this will open the config file with vim)
• Press a letter to activate vim's "type" mode
• Paste the "Cron job notation" given above
• To save and exit, first press "esc" and then type ":x" and press enter
• You must see "installing new crontab" on the command line

Now you are completely ready to go.

Answer 2

I think disabling the temp dir makes no sense as it is obvoiusly a requirement for the deployed app. File upload is usually implemented using temp files for example.

If I were you I would write a simple shell script for the cleanup and put it into the crontab for example.