open-source-silicon.dev

Hi,
running xschem 3.4.5 on a Linux Centos 7 multi-user system (for teaching chip design at university level).

In the /tmp folder, there are folders like ’xschem_undo_dcdcabfdba” for users currently running the program, with their ownership. It looks like each folder name is unique.

However, today there also appeared a ’xschem_web’ folder that is connected to one of the users. When I (as a another user) try to start xschem,  there is the following error message: ”error deleting "/tmp/xschem_web": not owner” and xschem does not start.

I have searched the internet, but no information.

How was the ”xschem_web” created, i.e. which part/function in xschem use this?
Is this a general problem and with a fix?

/Ted

<@U06ARL598J3> the `/tmp/xschem_undo_xxxx` directories are created when a running session of xschem is active and contains the undo ring buffer. These dirs are removed if xschem exits normally. If some of these directories are existing there is either a running xschem process or xschem was terminated or crashed. In this latter case you can safely remove these directories manualy.

The `/tmp/xschem_web` directory is created when xschem downloads remote schematics, like:

xschem  <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/w32agobot/SKY130_SAR-ADC/main/xschem/adc_top_tb.sch>

Once the objects are downloaded a cached copy is placed into `/tmp/xschem_web` for faster access.
When xschem starts it will remove this directory. I will change the logic in order to clean up this directory (like for the undo buffers) when xschem exits, so there is no risk of trying to delete a /tmp/xschem_web created by others. Again you can safely remove this directory (and its content) manually.
Thank you for pointing this issue, I will fix that.

Thanks for a good explanation! Always good to understand what is happening.
Yes, the undo buffers works well with multiple users, this was an exception. I will remove it manually.

If system is configured such that each user can not touch / delete other users temporary files (and this is a good setup) then either root ot users themselves need to cleanup their /tmp files, if they kill xschem or if xschem crashes without cleaning up. If you experience crashes of course submit an issue.

I have now modified the code for `xschem_web/` directories. these directories will now be uniquified, so each user will have its own `/tmp/xschem_xxxxx` directory if they open remote URLs.
xschem will create this directory on startup and remove on exit , exactly as is done for `xschem_undo_xxxxx`.

Again if you see dead `/tmp/xschem_web_xxxx` dirs and no xschem instance running it is fair to remove them manually.

Since now `/tmp/xschem_web_xxxxx/` is unique per xschem session in no case will xschem try to create  / delete a directory created by some other xschem instance.