From: Andrew Hewus Fresh <andrew@afresh1.com>
Subject: Re: Earlier /tmp cleanup in /etc/rc
To: tech@openbsd.org
Cc: kn@openbsd.org
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2026 18:56:38 -0700

Next iteration of this, which I think works properly (although I have
thought that before).

The current implementation always uses find -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1
which lets us go back to using -name instead of -path for the set of
file names to ignore.  We do that, because when we use find -d to remove
a few files, the depth first search makes the -path or -name
ineffective, still deleting files inside of those "skipped" top-level
directories.  Using xargs, as we do with mv, lets us call find again to
search by depth with only those top-level entries we wish to clean.

Again, in comparison with what is there, instead of attempting to make
inode space by deleting a likely file that might not be there, we
instead use the same find arguments twice, first to delete a few entries
synchronously to free inodes for mktemp -d and mv as well as the few
other early things that need them, and then, as before, mv entries that
are left into a directory we own that we can remove in the background.

If something goes wrong and the mktemp still fails, for example all
inodes live in one of the skipped directories, then it is up to the
system administrator to set things right.

I tested this and the early rm removes the expected number of entries
without removing things inside vi.recover as well continuing to clear
the excess in the background.

Index: rc
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/etc/rc,v
diff -u -p -r1.590 rc
--- rc	17 Aug 2026 22:41:38 -0000	1.590
+++ rc	27 Aug 2026 01:25:03 -0000
@@ -502,6 +502,24 @@ sysctl_conf
 mount -s /var >/dev/null 2>&1		# cannot be on NFS
 mount -s /var/log >/dev/null 2>&1	# cannot be on NFS
 mount -s /usr >/dev/null 2>&1		# if NFS, fstab must use IP address
+mount -s /tmp >/dev/null 2>&1		# if NFS, fstab must use IP address
+
+# Prune /tmp before users can authenticate.  A few files are removed
+# immediately, but most of the deletion happens asynchronously while
+# daemons are being started
+( cd /tmp && {
+    echo clearing /tmp
+    skip="-mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 ! -name lost+found ! -name quota.user 
+	! -name quota.group ! -name vi.recover"
+    find . $skip ! -perm -1000 -print0 |
+	xargs -r0J % find -d % -exec rm -rf -- {} \; -print |
+	    head -50 >/dev/null 2>&1
+    tmpdir=$(mktemp -d .delXXXXXXXXXX) && {
+	find . $skip ! -name "$tmpdir" -print0 |
+	    xargs -r0J % mv -f -- % "$tmpdir"
+	rm -rf -- "$tmpdir" &
+    }
+} )
 
 reorder_libs 2>&1 |&
 
@@ -597,26 +615,6 @@ if [[ -f /etc/ptmp ]]; then
 	    'password file may be incorrect -- /etc/ptmp exists'
 fi
 
-echo clearing /tmp
-
-# Prune /tmp before users can authenticate.  A few files are removed
-# immediately, but most of the deletion happens asyncronously while
-# daemons are being started
-clear_tmp_dir=$(cd /tmp && {
-    rm -rf .{X11,ICE}-unix
-
-    set -- rm -rf
-    TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d /tmp/.delXXXXXXXXXX) && export TMPDIR &&
-	set -- sh -c 'mv -f -- "$@" "$TMPDIR"'
-    find . -maxdepth 1 ! -name . ! -name lost+found ! -name quota.user \
-	! -name quota.group ! -name vi.recover ! -name "$(basename "$TMPDIR")" \
-	-exec "$@" -- {} \+
-    rm -rfv "$TMPDIR" 2>&1 | head -20 >/dev/null
-    echo "$TMPDIR"
-} )
-rm -rf "$clear_tmp_dir" &
-clear_tmp_pid=$!
-
 # Create Unix sockets directories for X if needed and make sure they have
 # correct permissions.
 [[ -d /usr/X11R6/lib ]] && mkdir -m 1777 /tmp/.{X11,ICE}-unix
@@ -666,8 +664,6 @@ start_daemon dhcp6leased rad hostapd lpd
 start_daemon ftpproxy ftpproxy6 tftpd tftpproxy identd inetd rarpd bootparamd
 start_daemon rbootd mopd vmd spamd spamlogd sndiod
 echo '.'
-
-wait $clear_tmp_pid
 
 # If rc.firsttime exists, run it just once, and make sure it is deleted.
 run_upgrade_script firsttime