how to automatically cleanup failed PHP uploads in /tmp?

Question

How can I automatically cleanup failed uploads? PHP is storing them in /tmp and all file names look like phpAbCDeF (basically php followed by 6 characters).

I know that I can use the command:

find /tmp -name php\*

BUT this also removes other temp files that begins with php (created by other processes) that I don't want to delete.

Please suggest a solution.

Answer 1

It depends on how your files are named. Here are some suggestions:

1. delete all files whose name is php followed by exactly 6 characters:

   find /tmp -type f -name 'php??????' -delete
   

2. Delete all files whose name starts with php and which are empty:

   find /tmp -type f -name "php*"  -empty -delete
   

3. A better way would be to edit your server's php-ini file and set the variable upload_tmp_dir. That way, you can just delete everything in that directory. For example, if you set this in your php.ini:

   upload_tmp_dir=/tmp/phptmp
   

   You can then simply remove all files from the folder:

   rm  /tmp/phptmp/*
   

Answer 2

If this is an application that you wrote/can modify, I would recommend using register_shutdown_function at the time you create the temporary file. That way you can unlink even if your script is interrupted.