Deleting /var/cache/*
I deleted /var/cache/* today to free up some space on my /var
partition. However, instead of applications re-creating the files as I
expected, I recieved a bunch of error messages.
apt/apt-get refused to do anything until I manually created the
directory /var/cache/apt/archives/partial
I also got a few messages from cron.daily:
/etc/cron.daily/dwww:
mkdir: cannot create directory `/var/cache/dwww/dwww-build.1008': No
such file or directory
run-parts: /etc/cron.daily/dwww exited with return code 1
/etc/cron.daily/man-db:
fopen: No such file or directory
mandb: can't create index cache /var/cache/man/1075: No such file or
directory
mandb: can't chmod /var/cache/man/index.bt: No such file or directory
mandb: warning: can't update index cache /var/cache/man/index.bt: No
such file or directory
fopen: No such file or directory
mandb: can't create index cache /var/cache/man/oldlocal/1075: No such
file or directory
mandb: can't chmod /var/cache/man/oldlocal/index.bt: No such file or
directory
mandb: warning: can't update index cache
/var/cache/man/oldlocal/index.bt: No such file or directory
fopen: No such file or directory
mandb: can't create index cache /var/cache/man/X11R6/1075: No such
file or directory
mandb: can't chmod /var/cache/man/X11R6/index.bt: No such file or
directory
mandb: warning: can't update index cache
/var/cache/man/X11R6/index.bt: No such file or directory
Sure, these errors are relatively simple to fix, but I am wondering if
they are bugs. So before I file them as such, I'd like to know is it a
requirement of using /var/cache that directories and files be
automatically re-created?
According to FHS 5.2:
Files located under /var/cache may be expired in an application
specific manner, by the system administrator, or both. The application
should always be able to recover from manual deletion of these files
(generally because of a disk space shortage). No other requirements
are made on the data format of the cache directories.
True, the FHS does not specifically say that directories have to be
recreated, but I would consider it a bug if they aren't. Anyone agree?
--
Duncan Findlay
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