Subject: Changed tmpdir default to /var/tmp By default, mutt stores drafts in /tmp/mutt-$HOSTNAME-$UID-$PID-$REV. /tmp is designed to hold data that isn't guaranteed to be preserved between different invocations of programmes. For practical purposes, and on Debian at least, this translates to files being deleted on every boot, unless TMPTIME is amended in /etc/default/rcS and /tmp is not a tmpfs. This behaviour can cause loss of data, e.g. when the laptop dies or turns itself off due to low power; the user might not have a chance to commit the temporary mail draft s/he was working on to non-volatile storage. I suggest that mutt should use /var/tmp by default for its mail drafts, as that directory is also temporary in nature, but cleaned less frequently than /tmp. More specifically, the FHS dictates that "files and directories located in /var/tmp must not be deleted when the system is booted." This patch modifies all occurrences of $tmpdir, $TMPDIR and Tempdir, but not the documentation, which looks like it's generated from init.h. Patch created by: martin f. krafft , submitted to http://dev.mutt.org/trac/ticket/3236 and repaired to be able to apply. Fedora related: Upstream is not willing to change defualt tmpdir, because they don't believe /var/tmp is on all supported platforms. However, they agree with changing it in distrubution packages. More info at http://dev.mutt.org/trac/ticket/3236 diff -up mutt-1.5.21/doc/manual.html.tmpdir mutt-1.5.21/doc/manual.html --- mutt-1.5.21/doc/manual.html.tmpdir 2012-09-27 15:02:53.455915783 +0200 +++ mutt-1.5.21/doc/manual.html 2012-09-27 15:04:07.439427603 +0200 @@ -3090,7 +3090,7 @@ information, notably the type, encoding

Attachments appear as follows by default: 

-- 1 [text/plain, 7bit, 1K]           /tmp/mutt-euler-8082-0 <no description>
+- 1 [text/plain, 7bit, 1K]           /var/tmp/mutt-euler-8082-0 <no description>
   2 [applica/x-gunzip, base64, 422K] ~/src/mutt-0.85.tar.gz <no description>

The “-” denotes that Mutt will delete the file after @@ -6944,7 +6944,7 @@ Default: (empty)

This variable allows you to specify where Mutt will place its temporary files needed for displaying and composing messages. If this variable is not set, the environment variable $TMPDIR is -used. If $TMPDIR is not set then “/tmp” is used. +used. If $TMPDIR is not set then “/var/tmp” is used.

3.294. to_chars

Type: string
Default: “ +TCFL”

Controls the character used to indicate mail addressed to you. The diff -up mutt-1.5.21/doc/manual.txt.tmpdir mutt-1.5.21/doc/manual.txt --- mutt-1.5.21/doc/manual.txt.tmpdir 2012-09-27 15:04:20.601518838 +0200 +++ mutt-1.5.21/doc/manual.txt 2012-09-27 15:04:50.154724683 +0200 @@ -4524,7 +4524,7 @@ description. Attachments appear as follows by default: -- 1 [text/plain, 7bit, 1K] /tmp/mutt-euler-8082-0 +- 1 [text/plain, 7bit, 1K] /var/tmp/mutt-euler-8082-0 2 [applica/x-gunzip, base64, 422K] ~/src/mutt-0.85.tar.gz The ?-? denotes that Mutt will delete the file after sending (or postponing, or @@ -9746,7 +9746,7 @@ Default: (empty) This variable allows you to specify where Mutt will place its temporary files needed for displaying and composing messages. If this variable is not set, the -environment variable $TMPDIR is used. If $TMPDIR is not set then ?/tmp? is +environment variable $TMPDIR is used. If $TMPDIR is not set then ?/var/tmp? is used. 3.294. to_chars diff -up mutt-1.5.21/doc/Muttrc.tmpdir mutt-1.5.21/doc/Muttrc --- mutt-1.5.21/doc/Muttrc.tmpdir 2012-09-27 15:02:16.391661482 +0200 +++ mutt-1.5.21/doc/Muttrc 2012-09-27 15:02:33.822780695 +0200 @@ -4515,7 +4515,7 @@ attachments -I message/external-body # This variable allows you to specify where Mutt will place its # temporary files needed for displaying and composing messages. If # this variable is not set, the environment variable $TMPDIR is -# used. If $TMPDIR is not set then ``/tmp'' is used. +# used. If $TMPDIR is not set then ``/var/tmp'' is used. # # # set to_chars=" +TCFL" diff -up mutt-1.5.21/doc/reference.html.tmpdir mutt-1.5.21/doc/reference.html --- mutt-1.5.21/doc/reference.html.tmpdir 2012-09-27 15:05:12.288879110 +0200 +++ mutt-1.5.21/doc/reference.html 2012-09-27 15:05:51.130151344 +0200 @@ -2804,7 +2804,7 @@ Default: (empty)

This variable allows you to specify where Mutt will place its temporary files needed for displaying and composing messages. If this variable is not set, the environment variable $TMPDIR is -used. If $TMPDIR is not set then “/tmp” is used. +used. If $TMPDIR is not set then “/var/tmp” is used.

3.294. to_chars

Type: string
Default: “ +TCFL”

Controls the character used to indicate mail addressed to you. The diff -up mutt-1.5.21/init.c.tmpdir mutt-1.5.21/init.c --- mutt-1.5.21/init.c.tmpdir 2012-09-27 14:59:10.099395476 +0200 +++ mutt-1.5.21/init.c 2012-09-27 14:59:23.292484023 +0200 @@ -2992,7 +2992,7 @@ void mutt_init (int skip_sys_rc, LIST *c MailcapPath = safe_strdup ("~/.mailcap:" PKGDATADIR "/mailcap:" SYSCONFDIR "/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap"); } - Tempdir = safe_strdup ((p = getenv ("TMPDIR")) ? p : "/tmp"); + Tempdir = safe_strdup ((p = getenv ("TMPDIR")) ? p : "/var/tmp"); p = getenv ("VISUAL"); if (!p) diff -up mutt-1.5.21/init.h.tmpdir mutt-1.5.21/init.h --- mutt-1.5.21/init.h.tmpdir 2012-09-27 14:59:46.214638908 +0200 +++ mutt-1.5.21/init.h 2012-09-27 15:00:21.541877784 +0200 @@ -3178,7 +3178,7 @@ struct option_t MuttVars[] = { ** This variable allows you to specify where Mutt will place its ** temporary files needed for displaying and composing messages. If ** this variable is not set, the environment variable \fC$$$TMPDIR\fP is - ** used. If \fC$$$TMPDIR\fP is not set then ``\fC/tmp\fP'' is used. + ** used. If \fC$$$TMPDIR\fP is not set then ``\fC/var/tmp\fP'' is used. */ { "to_chars", DT_STR, R_BOTH, UL &Tochars, UL " +TCFL" }, /* diff -up mutt-1.5.21/install-sh.tmpdir mutt-1.5.21/install-sh --- mutt-1.5.21/install-sh.tmpdir 2012-09-27 15:00:32.246950740 +0200 +++ mutt-1.5.21/install-sh 2012-09-27 15:01:15.957247967 +0200 @@ -332,7 +332,7 @@ do # is incompatible with FreeBSD 'install' when (umask & 300) != 0. ;; *) - tmpdir=${TMPDIR-/tmp}/ins$RANDOM-$$ + tmpdir=${TMPDIR-/var/tmp}/ins$RANDOM-$$ trap 'ret=$?; rmdir "$tmpdir/d" "$tmpdir" 2>/dev/null; exit $ret' 0 if (umask $mkdir_umask && diff -up mutt-1.5.21/muttbug.sh.in.tmpdir mutt-1.5.21/muttbug.sh.in --- mutt-1.5.21/muttbug.sh.in.tmpdir 2012-09-27 15:01:37.097392500 +0200 +++ mutt-1.5.21/muttbug.sh.in 2012-09-27 15:01:52.061494226 +0200 @@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ esac exec > /dev/tty exec < /dev/tty -SCRATCH=${TMPDIR-/tmp}/`basename $0`.`hostname`.$$ +SCRATCH=${TMPDIR-/var/tmp}/`basename $0`.`hostname`.$$ mkdir ${SCRATCH} || \ {