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Zap Changing In June

What is Zap? Zap is a program that runs on all machines every night to remove unnecessary files. It currently removes files named "core", "obj" and "a.out". It also removes files that start with ".,", "," or "#" and files that end with ".obj" or ".o".

What is changing? In June, Zap will be changed so it will no longer remove files that end in ".o". This is because an increasing number of third-party software packages include .o files that are difficult to recreate and because users have complained that zap has removed important .o files.

This change will be made on all ECN machines except the Gould NP1s (EN, CN, GN and MN).

How does this change affect me? Users who presently rely on Zap to remove .o files will need to remove the .o files themselves, either with rm(1) or with a cron entry. If you find your account is over quota, look for .o files before requesting more disk space.

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