Chit-Chat

Help - Millions of sess_ files in tmp folder

Permalink December 19, 2012 at 4:48 PM

Hello,

My client's files/tmp folder keeps filling with millions of files that begin with sess_ presumably files that keep track of session data. They are not being cleaned out automatically, and they take forever to clean out manually unless we do so frequently. What can be done about this?

Best,

Joey

ConcreteOwl replied on Dec 19, 2012 at 5:30 pm Permalink Reply

Well,
Until a "Job" is included in the optimization section to deal with the clearing out of the tmp folder,
You can simply delete the tmp folder because it will be re-created automatically as a new folder to hold the latest session file,
Not ideal but for the moment a quicker solution than deleting the individual sess files.

grosbedo replied on Feb 7, 2013 at 5:13 pm Permalink Reply

Thank's for the input, but indeed I suffer from the same problem. This should be added in the TODO list for the next release.

Phallanx replied on Feb 7, 2013 at 7:06 pm Permalink Reply

Check your php configuration.

http://ca.php.net/manual/en/session.configuration.php#ini.session.g...

abberdab replied on Aug 9, 2013 at 7:03 pm Permalink Reply

I'm struggling with this, too. Trying to back up a site before upgrading from 5.6.0.2 to 5.6.1 and the /tmp/ directory is killing me. Unable to zip from the command line on my web server and deleting the /tmp/ directory in prep for zipping has taken 1:42 minutes so far (it's still "rm"-ing). I think its massive bloatiness might be the reason why backup cron jobs on this server haven't been completing.

Ugh ugh ugh.

I sure hope this is fixed in 5.6.1. Really feeling like I'm getting dinged for my pre-upgrade due diligence here. This was supposed to be a simple, one-click upgrade. :(

(I checked my php configuration and all seemed to be in order.)

mhawke replied on Aug 9, 2013 at 7:56 pm Permalink Reply

Have you asked your host about it? Shouldn't their 'garbage clean-up' routines be expiring the sessions and deleting them.

abberdab replied on Aug 9, 2013 at 8:09 pm Permalink Reply

Thanks for the direction, mhawke. I'll ping them and find out. :)

Hypocrite replied on Aug 19, 2013 at 3:04 am Permalink Reply

We have also this problem with 5.6.2.

If I understasnd, the php.ini setting only destroyes sessions in the default /tmp/ folder.

But concrete5 saves them in /files/tmp/ under the install folder.

The server does not clean this folder by default?

mhawke replied on Aug 19, 2013 at 8:23 am Permalink Reply

Add these lines to your [root]/config/site.php

define('DIR_SESSIONS', sys_get_temp_dir());
define('DIR_TMP', sys_get_temp_dir());

Remo replied on Aug 19, 2013 at 11:13 am Permalink Reply

Not sure, but maybe this helps too?
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/cache-vac/...

Hypocrite replied on Aug 19, 2013 at 11:20 am Permalink Reply

It seems to be a bug with Debian and Ubuntu.

http://www.concrete5.org/developers/bugs/5-6-1-2/default-ubuntu-lam...

Here's also some information about it:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.session-save-path.php#98106...

mhawke replied on Aug 19, 2013 at 1:06 pm Permalink Reply

I don't believe that add-on touches the /files/tmp folder.

I dug through the code and found where c5 determines it's storage loactions.

'DIR_TMP' is determined on line #150 of [root]/concrete/core/helpers/file.php

'DIR_SESSIONS' is determeined on line #29 of [root]/concrete/startup/file_permission_config.php

As soon as I defined these variables in my site.php file as noted above, the problem disappeared on my server. I would recommend asking your host what you need to set these to in order for their 'garbage collection' routines to clean them up.

Mainio replied on Jan 14, 2014 at 2:00 pm Permalink Reply

One solution to this would also be to simply delete the session files through cron once a day, for example:

0 0 * * * find /home/USERNAME/public_html/files/tmp/sess_* -mtime +0 -exec rm {} \;

This only deletes files that are older than one day.

I've even run to situation where the millions of session files have prevented concrete5 from working because of the /tmp folder being unusable (some file system specific issue with too many files in a dir).

AccountDisabled replied on Feb 15, 2014 at 4:54 pm Permalink Reply

One of my favorite clients (msanderson) had a site with messy /files/tmp folder. Our solution was to create a concrete5 job to clean up any sess_ files older than a day.

Here is the job file "clean_temp_sessions.php" we created along with install instructions.

<?php
defined('C5_EXECUTE') or die(_("Access Denied."));
/*
Install
    Copy this file to /jobs
    Dashboard > System & Settings > Automated Jobs
    Install "Clean Temp Sessions"
    Automate the job to your liking
*/
class CleanTempSessions extends Job {
    public function getJobName() {
        return t('Clean Temp Sessions');
    }
    public function getJobDescription() {
        return t('Cleans up PHP sess files from /files/tmp that are older than one day.');

Viewing 15 lines of 34 lines. View entire code block.

<?php
defined('C5_EXECUTE') or die(_("Access Denied."));
 
/*
Install
 
    Copy this file to /jobs
    Dashboard > System & Settings > Automated Jobs
    Install "Clean Temp Sessions"
    Automate the job to your liking
 
*/
 
class CleanTempSessions extends Job {
    public function getJobName() {
        return t('Clean Temp Sessions');
    }
 
    public function getJobDescription() {
        return t('Cleans up PHP sess files from /files/tmp that are older than one day.');
    }
 
    public function run() {
        $dir = DIR_BASE . '/files/tmp';
        $unlink_count = 0;
        if ($handle = opendir($dir)) {
            while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
                if (substr($file, 0, 5) === 'sess_') {
                    $filelastmodified = filemtime($dir . '/' . $file);
                    if ((time() - $filelastmodified) > (24 * 3600)) {
                       @unlink($dir . '/' . $file);
                       $unlink_count = $unlink_count + 1;
                    }
                }
            }
            closedir($handle);
        }
        return $unlink_count . ' files cleaned up.';
    }
}

Posted with love in case anyone else finds it useful. ^_^

Cheers!

jordif replied on Jul 4, 2014 at 8:46 am Permalink Reply

Thanks, I was looking exactly for this! It works perfectly.

Sorry for the bad pun, but... great job :)

jordi

lota replied on Oct 7, 2014 at 9:22 pm Permalink Reply

Great! A very useful job!

adwlabs replied on Feb 17, 2015 at 1:49 pm Permalink Reply

Hi ForestMist,
I have the same problem but I don't know how to use your code.
In particular i didn't understand where I have to put the code.
Please can you help me?

thank you very much

mhawke replied on Feb 17, 2015 at 3:53 pm Permalink Reply

Perhaps I can help. This assumes you are running version 5.6.x.x.

First, have you checked to see if there are a lot of session files inside the /files/tmp folder?

If so, follow these directions to install ForestMist's code:

1) Copy all the lines of code from ForestMist's post to your clipboard. (click the link below it to see all the code)
2) Create a new, blank file in a pure text editor (like Notepad++ or just Notepad) and paste the code into this new file.
3) Save the files as "clean_temp_sessions.php"
4) Upload this new file to your root level /jobs folder
5) Visit "Dashboard->Automated Jobs" and click on 'Install' button next to this new Job (below the existing jobs)
6) Once it installs, click the 'Run' button.

Hope that helps

AccountDisabled replied on Feb 17, 2015 at 5:24 pm Permalink Reply

Nice instructions mhawke. Thanks. :)

adwlabs replied on Feb 18, 2015 at 3:05 am Permalink Reply

Hi mhawke, many thanks for your reply.
I followed your instructions and installed the new job. It works fine.
Unfortunately my problem persists: all files "sess_" in the "tmp" folder have permissions setted on 0600 (adfrw) by default.
So, the new job doesn't clean the folder. I always have to set the permissions on 777 manually, and then I'm unable to delete the files via ftp.
Any suggestion to solve my problem would be appreciated.

Thank you very much

AccountDisabled replied on Feb 18, 2015 at 5:41 pm Permalink Reply

Usinghttp://php.net/function.chmod in the job to set the permissions on the file before removing it may help. Keyword, may.

For example, you could try the code below. It is the same code as before with the addition of a chmod command right before unlinking of the file.

<?php
defined('C5_EXECUTE') or die(_("Access Denied."));
/*
Install
    Copy this file to /jobs
    Dashboard > System & Settings > Automated Jobs
    Install "Clean Temp Sessions"
    Automate the job to your liking
*/
class CleanTempSessions extends Job {
    public function getJobName() {
        return t('Clean Temp Sessions');
    }
    public function getJobDescription() {
        return t('Cleans up PHP sess files from /files/tmp that are older than one day.');

Viewing 15 lines of 35 lines. View entire code block.

<?php
defined('C5_EXECUTE') or die(_("Access Denied."));
 
/*
Install
 
    Copy this file to /jobs
    Dashboard > System & Settings > Automated Jobs
    Install "Clean Temp Sessions"
    Automate the job to your liking
 
*/
 
class CleanTempSessions extends Job {
    public function getJobName() {
        return t('Clean Temp Sessions');
    }
 
    public function getJobDescription() {
        return t('Cleans up PHP sess files from /files/tmp that are older than one day.');
    }
 
    public function run() {
        $dir = DIR_BASE . '/files/tmp';
        $unlink_count = 0;
        if ($handle = opendir($dir)) {
            while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
                if (substr($file, 0, 5) === 'sess_') {
                    $filelastmodified = filemtime($dir . '/' . $file);
                    if ((time() - $filelastmodified) > (24 * 3600)) {
                        @chmod($dir . '/' . $file, 0777); // try this                       
                        @unlink($dir . '/' . $file);
                        $unlink_count = $unlink_count + 1;
                    }
                }
            }
            closedir($handle);
        }
        return $unlink_count . ' files cleaned up.';
    }
}

I have not tested the above code so it may need further refinement by someone actively working with concrete5 (since I am no longer).

enlil replied on Feb 21, 2015 at 11:58 pm Permalink Reply 1 Attachment

Just what I was looking for! Took it one step further and put it in package form using forestmist's most recent code. @adwlabs, unzip it, place it in your root packages folder and install it through the dashboard. Haven't tested against any chmod quirks yet, but is working as expected in my environment. Any feedback to make it better is welcome and with forestmist's kindly ok, I'd be happy to push this to the marketplace as a free add-on for broader use. Enjoy. See Attached...

AccountDisabled replied on Feb 22, 2015 at 1:58 am Permalink Reply

Please feel free to use the code for whatever you wish. :D

adwlabs replied on Feb 25, 2015 at 12:46 am Permalink Reply

thanks to all. I think it was a server problem, because now the automatic process works fine. Many thanks

enlil replied on Mar 9, 2015 at 11:27 pm Permalink Reply

This is now available free in the marketplace!
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/enlil-sess-files-job/...

AccountDisabled replied on Mar 10, 2015 at 1:21 am Permalink Reply

Nice. More people will be able to use it as an installable package. Good job. :D

Floyd112 replied on Mar 10, 2015 at 8:45 am Permalink Reply

Just leave it there. Its part of the system files.

enlil replied on Mar 10, 2015 at 9:00 am Permalink Reply

sure, until there's a million of them and your server crashes because theres no disk space left :|

eccw replied on Jul 27, 2015 at 5:28 pm Permalink Reply

Will this job work with 5.7?

enlil replied on Aug 1, 2015 at 2:56 am Permalink Reply

No it is for 5.6

Forums

Chit-Chat

Help - Millions of sess_ files in tmp folder

Code

Post Reply

Delete Post

Mark Post as Spam

Destroy Spammer

Sign In?