[Zope] tens of thousands of files in Zope var directory

[Paul Winkler]

On Mon, Dec 22, 2003 at 11:31:46AM +1100, Tim Edwards wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> We have 75,000 to 80,000 .png, .jpg and .wmf files in the Zope var
> directory. Where do these files come from?

This is not normal. By default, zope does not write to
any files except log(s) and the database file (Data.fs).  It 
also does write temp files in your $TMPDIR, e.g. when uploading 
files.  But these should be cleaned up automatically.

> Are they something to do with the
> cache? If so how do we clean them out - there couldn't be more than 20 or 30
> seperate images on our whole site and the 75,000 to 80,000 are making it
> difficult to backup the site.

Are you sure they were put there by zope?
Have you looked at some, to see what they contain?
I have to wonder if someone has cracked your server and is storing
illicit material.

> We are running Zope 2.6.2 with Plone 1.0.5. We are using a cache manager for
> our site. 

Which kind of cache manager? The only one I know of that writes
separate files on the filesystem is Andy McKay's FSCacheManager,
only available from cvs on collective.sf.net. IIRC it uses the
object's getPhysicalPath() in zope to determine the filesystem
path to write, which means it cannot write the same file to multiple
filesystem paths - so it is very unlikely to account for your
80,000 files.

-- 

Paul Winkler
http://www.slinkp.com
Look! Up in the sky! It's THE HERMAPHRODITIC FELLOW!
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