User`s guide

Reporter
Introduction
44 5967–9446
Temporary Files
Reporter uses temporary files for several purposes, including merging
data from multiple data files, writing out X resources used to produce
reports, and writing the report output.
Temporary files are created in directory defined by the environment vari-
able TMPDIR. If the variable does not exist, /var/tmp is used, and the
bigM.* and ldmp.* are placed in the /var/tmp/netmrep hierarchy.
Temporary files created by Reporter use the following file name formats:
bigM.* Contains the results from merging multiple extended RMON
data files.
The size of these files depends on the requested duration for
the report. The longer the duration, the larger the number of
individual files to be merged, and the more space required for
this temporary file.
When a report is generated or displayed, one bigM.* file is
created, then deleted, for each Protocol Distribution or Top N
graph.
cron* Holds changes to the user’s crontab file.
dat.* Holds the data passed to the grapher process; used to
construct the graphs comprising a report. One file is created
for each graph when a report is generated or displayed.
ldmp.* Contains text output derived from extended RMON data files
rep.* Contains the report output file, in PostScript, XWD, or text
format. (You can reference this file within a report by using
the variable $OUTPUTFILE, discussed on page 149.) If you
specify output to a named file, the rep.* file is not created.
xres.* Contains X resources that are passed to grapher process; these
resources control the appearance of graphs in a report. One
file is created when a report is generated or displayed.