Re: Summary: Moving /tmp to tmpfs makes it useless

[Goswin von Brederlow <goswin-v-b@web.de>]

Wouter Verhelst <wouter@debian.org> writes:

> On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 04:14:52AM +0300, Serge wrote:
>> User cannot break the system filling /tmp on disk. But he can do that
>> if he fills /tmp on tmpfs. So /tmp on tmpfs adds one more point of
>> failure for servers.
>
> No, that's not true. The real danger in filling up /tmp is not that
> other processes can't write temporary files anymore (causing a minority
> of processes to hang or die; those who just happen to need temporary
> storage at that point in time), but that no process can write any file
> anymore (causing a significant majority of processes to hang or die).

So tmpfs for /tmp increases the chance of accidentally filling up /tmp
and causing a moderate failure but prevents malicious filling up of /tmp
to cause wide spread failure. :)

MfG
        Goswin