A few hours ago i reinstalled my server with Ubuntu Server 16.04.1 LTS. As part of my regular setup process, i delete /var/tmp and set up a symlink to /tmp which is on its own partition with nodev,nosuid,noexec.
The problem is, /var/tmp will not delete. I keep getting told:
rm: cannot remove '/var/tmp': Device or resource busy
I even tried logging in via cd based rescue mode and doing the delete and symlink there (mounting the partition first). It seems to work, but when i reboot the system – i see that /var/tmp was recreated.
Is there something new in Ubuntu Server 16.04.1 that creates a new /var/tmp folder on every boot up? If so, where is it?
P.S. Server has soft raid too.
Best Answer
There is a reason for these being different directories.
/var/tmpis intended for temp files that need to live trough a reboot/var/runis intended for files that specifically should not be around anymore after a reboot (e.g. .pid files)/tmpcan be cleaned at almost any moment, it typically does not live trough a reboot, and can be 'tmpfs'Programs that rely on these assumptions may behave weirdly when
/var/tmpis cleaned all of a sudden. So you shouldn't just symlink it to /tmp