[Bug 1658027] Re: pkgcache.bin.<random> files fill up drive

[Julian Andres Klode]

This does not happen only with apt-get update. A new temporary file is
created by (almost) every APT command if at least one of the main cache
files is outdated. It is then renamed to the final file. If APT exits
before the rename, the temporary filename might stay around until you
run clean. Given that this only started 6 months ago, something must be
trying to read information from the apt cache.

Given that we are talking about a 4 year old release that has its end of
life in 3 months, I'm not going to spend any time investigating this.
There have been a ton of changes in 4 years, and I do remember some
cleanup in that area, and there have been no other reports about that
AFAIK with recent releases.

That said, if you can find the cause and reproduce this in 16.04, we
might be able to do something about it. But it's of course difficult:
There will always be some temporary files remaining if APT crashes in
the wrong moment. If you run a command and interrupt it with Ctrl+C,
there will likely be a file laying around, and there is really nothing
we can do about that.

** Changed in: apt (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Incomplete

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1658027

Title:
  pkgcache.bin.<random> files fill up drive

Status in apt package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  Hello
  This seems to be similar to bug 1050779.

  This occurred on Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS.  apt-get version 0.8.16 compiled
  8 Oct 2014.

  I have a headless remote webcam server connected via the mobile
  telephone network. A new file pkgcache.bin.xxxyyy (where xxxyyy are
  random letters/numbers) is generated each day with the same time stamp
  (0625 am) and  gets added to the /var/cache/apt/ dir. This continues
  until the entire root partition is full and the server locks up.

  I understand that this should only happen if apt-get update is run but
  I don't do that. No one has access to run that command. I do not
  install any updates on the server once deployed. At present, the
  server has no connection to the internet, so these files are generated
  by the software on the server.

  I receive a daily report emailed from the server.  apt-get is not
  listed as a running process when the report is run at 0730.

  What is worse is that this problem seems to have started itself. This
  server has been running since 2014 without issue. It has started to
  fill up the cache directory in the last 6 months for no obvious
  reasons.  This has caused the server to lock up twice.

  I am clearing the files with a daily a crontab job to run apt-get
  clean.

  I checked the "apt" logs. There are no new entries from when initial
  installation was done.

  I have asked for help here :
  http://askubuntu.com/questions/873241/var-cache-apt-dir-filling-with-daily-pkgcache-bin-xxxyyy-files/873687#873687
  without a response.

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