Issue with Setting Temporary Directory for Firebird 5 on Linux

[Ernesto Alconada]

I am trying to run Firebird 5 on a Linux system, and I have set the FIREBIRD_TMP system variable and modified the firebird.conf file to change both the TempDirectories and TempTableDirectory variables to the same value as FIREBIRD_TMP. However, these settings seem to be ignored, and Firebird continues to generate temporary files in /tmp.

My goal is to run multiple instances of Firebird, each with its own temporary directory. The problem is that /tmp is a RAM-mounted directory and is too small for my needs.

Has anyone encountered this issue or have any advice on how to correctly configure Firebird to use custom temporary directories?

[SP Ooi]

We have this same issue across our 14 FB5 servers too. Please share any solution.

SP

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[Hamish Moffatt]

On 13/11/25 07:42, Ernesto Alconada wrote:
>
> I am trying to run Firebird 5 on a Linux system, and I have set the
> FIREBIRD_TMP system variable and modified the firebird.conf file to
> change both the TempDirectories and TempTableDirectory variables to
> the same value as FIREBIRD_TMP. However, these settings seem to be
> ignored, and Firebird continues to generate temporary files in /tmp.
>
> My goal is to run multiple instances of Firebird, each with its own
> temporary directory. The problem is that /tmp is a RAM-mounted
> directory and is too small for my needs.
>
>

As a workaround, you could always modify fstab not to have /tmp as
tmpfs. It wasn't always like that.

Or bind mount some real storage on to /tmp/firebird.


Hamish

[SP Ooi]

I believe the original issue was why did FIREBIRD_TMP system variable nor TempDirectories and TempTableDirectory in firebird.conf work? Was that a bug? If it was, would it be fixed?

Modifying fstab to mount another storage resource over /tmp/firebird (which /tmp was also mounted via fstab) is not an option.

Regards, SP

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[Hamish Moffatt]

On 14/11/25 17:20, SP Ooi wrote:
> I believe the original issue was why did FIREBIRD_TMP system variable
> nor TempDirectories and TempTableDirectory in firebird.conf work? Was
> that a bug? If it was, would it be fixed?

How did you set FIREBIRD_TMP for the server? Are you sure it's taking
effect? You can look in the output of

cat /proc/$(pidof firebird)/environ


Hamish

[Vlad Khorsun]

  Memory mappings (shared memory) files such as lock table, TIP cache and snapshots lists, monitoring snapshots, etc, 

must be placed into common, well known place to ensure ability to correct communication between server processes. 

It should be known in advance - before connect to the any database. This place is /tmp/firebird by default and could be 

changed by setting FIREBIRD_LOCK environment variable. It is highly not recommended to do as it may lead to corrupted 

database(s), if use improperly. 

  If you really going to set  FIREBIRD_LOCK after warning above - do it system-wise, not "per-database".

Regards,

Vlad

[Dimitry Sibiryakov]

'Hamish Moffatt' via firebird-support wrote 13.11.2025 23:38:
> As a workaround, you could always modify fstab not to have /tmp as tmpfs.

Better would be to back up tmpfs with some swap files.

--
WBR, SD.

[Ernesto Alconada]

 

I’m configuring the FIREBIRD_LOCK and FIREBIRD_TMP environment variables at the database server level, by setting them in the Firebird service configuration file with the desired values. Additionally, I’ve set the PrivateTmp variable to yes so that each Firebird service (since I have multiple instances installed) uses its own directory in /var/tmp. Here’s an example of the configuration file:

[Unit] Description=Firebird Database Server After=syslog.target network.target Documentation=https://firebirdsql.org/en/firebird-rdbms/ [Service] User=firebird Group=firebird Type=forking ExecStart=/opt/firebird_caiconta/bin/fbguard -daemon -forever PrivateTmp=yes Environment=FIREBIRD_TMP=/var/tmp Environment=FIREBIRD_LOCK=/var/tmp [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target

Is this setup correct? If I were to configure it system-wide, would there be any issue with sharing the same directory for multiple Firebird services?

Thanks

[Ernesto Alconada]

Configuration service file:

[Unit]

Description=Firebird Database Server

After=syslog.target network.target

Documentation=https://firebirdsql.org/en/firebird-rdbms/

[Service]

User=firebird

Group=firebird

Type=forking

ExecStart=/opt/firebird_caiconta/bin/fbguard -daemon -forever

PrivateTmp=yes

Environment=FIREBIRD_TMP=/var/tmp

Environment=FIREBIRD_LOCK=/var/tmp

[Install]

WantedBy=multi-user.target

[Vlad Khorsun]

I’m configuring the FIREBIRD_LOCK and FIREBIRD_TMP environment variables at the database server level, by setting them in the Firebird service configuration file with the desired values. Additionally, I’ve set the PrivateTmp variable to yes so that each Firebird service (since I have multiple instances installed) uses its own directory in /var/tmp. Here’s an example of the configuration file:

[Unit] 

Description=Firebird Database Server 

After=syslog.target network.target 

Documentation=https://firebirdsql.org/en/firebird-rdbms/ 

[Service] 

User=firebird 

Group=firebird 

Type=forking 

ExecStart=/opt/firebird_caiconta/bin/fbguard -daemon -forever 

PrivateTmp=yes 

Environment=FIREBIRD_TMP=/var/tmp 

Environment=FIREBIRD_LOCK=/var/tmp 

[Install] 

WantedBy=multi-user.target

Is this setup correct?

  Not completely. Embedded connections will still use default place for shared memory files.

Also, Firebird server could be run not as a system service. I can't consider nor recommend this aproach as completely safe.

If I were to configure it system-wide, would there be any issue with sharing the same directory for multiple Firebird services?

  No issues. Single folder for all memory mapped files is the natural way Firebird works.

Regards,

Vlad

 

[Ernesto Alconada]

I'm trying to configure the temporary directory system-wide for Firebird so that all services use the same location. However, no matter what I try, the service keeps creating its temporary files under /tmp/firebird.

How should I correctly define the variable so that it applies system-wide to all Firebird services? I’ve tried several methods, but the service still ignores them and uses the default path.

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[Hamish Moffatt]

On 15/11/25 11:59, Ernesto Alconada wrote:

I'm trying to configure the temporary directory system-wide for Firebird so that all services use the same location. However, no matter what I try, the service keeps creating its temporary files under /tmp/firebird.

How should I correctly define the variable so that it applies system-wide to all Firebird services? I’ve tried several methods, but the service still ignores them and uses the default path.

These can't be from the server since you set PrivateTmp=yes in there. Are they from the client? Are you using the embedded server (in the client) to access any databases?

Hamish

[Vlad Khorsun]

I'm trying to configure the temporary directory system-wide for Firebird so that all services use the same location. However, no matter what I try, the service keeps creating its temporary files under /tmp/firebird.

  Did you restart services ? Whole machine ? How these files names looks like ?

  Check the actual lock file path with following command:

  fbsvcmgr inet://localhost:port/service_mgr info_get_env_lock

 

where "port" is the value of RemoteServicePort setting of given Firebird instance.

How should I correctly define the variable so that it applies system-wide to all Firebird services? I’ve tried several methods, but the service still ignores them and uses the default path.

  It depends on your Linux distro. 

Regards,

Vlad