Unable to perform a background re-index

Question

Hello, I am unable to perform a background re-index in jira. I think the problem is caused by insufficient disk space under / temp. So, is it safe to delete the contents of the temp folder? what is the difference between the temporary folder under jira-home and the one under the install directory?

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted Answer

It is partially safe.  If you stop Jira before you delete the files in there (and the one in the installation directory), then you won't have any problem - Jira will recreate anything it needs from scratch.

I say "partially" because it is absolutely not safe to delete temp files while Jira is running.  A better answer is probably "No and Yes" - No it's not safe to delete while Jira is running, but Yes, you can clear out the temporary directories while it is shut down.  One minor thing though - if you clear out the Tomcat temporary directories (the ones under jira-install), do NOT delete the directories, there is at least one that goes wrong if you remove it.  Killing all the files is fine, but don't remove the directories.

However.   You are going to continue to have problems if you don't have enough disk space.  There is every chance that Jira needs all the temp files you've seen and will simply recreate the lot (and then fall over with a space error again)