[ubuntu-cpc] please make /tmp a tmpfs in RAM
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
livecd-rootfs (Ubuntu) |
Won't Fix
|
High
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
In Ubuntu, we have always cleared /tmp on every boot.
As such, on servers, by default /tmp should actually be a tmpfs entirely in RAM, when there is enough memory in the system. This threshold should be configurable by the end user (in cloud-init?), and default threshold of ~3GB.
Read about tmpfs here: https:/
This has several advantages, mainly:
* Performance - much faster read/write access to data in /tmp
- especially if your disk is spinning media
- and if you're on SSD, this feature extends the life of your flash by reducing your NAND flash writes
* Security - sensitive data would be cleared from memory on boot, rather than written (leaked) to disk -- important for encryption scenarios
* Power consumption - storing information in memory is more energy efficient than reading and writing to disk
In scenarios where more space in /tmp is needed than available, one can compliment that tmpfs with 'sudo apt-get install swapspace' which will dynamically create/delete swapfile as necessary. See: http://
Changed in livecd-rootfs (Ubuntu): | |
status: | New → Triaged |
importance: | Undecided → High |
assignee: | nobody → Ben Howard (utlemming) |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
I am inclined to make the change here. The only problem that I can see is that some smaller cloud instance types (*.micro on AWS, the upcoming nano instance, GCE's micro, etc) this might be problematic.