How do I make sosreport write to an alternative location?

Environment

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.6 and later
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
• sosreport

Issue

• Is there a way to force sosreport to use a different directory than /tmp?
• sosreport fails because there is not enough space in /tmp.

Resolution

NOTE: The solution depends on the "sos" package version.

• To verify the sos package version, run:

  # rpm -qa sos
  

For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7 and above:

• If the sosreport version is sos-1.7-9.54.el5 or above, typically:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7 and later.

• Use the --tmp-dir option of sosreport to temporarily change the destination:

  # mkdir /root/sos
  # sosreport --tmp-dir /root/sos
  

• The example above will generate the sosreport under /root/sos instead of /tmp.

For Red Hat Enterprise Linux between RHEL 4.6 and RHEL 5.6

• If the sosreport version is sos-1.7-9.49.el5 or below, typically:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.6 and later.
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6 and earlier.

• Use the $TMP environment variable to temporarily change the destination:

  # mkdir /root/sos
  # env TMP=/root/sos/ sosreport
  

• The example above will generate the sosreport under /root/sos instead of /tmp.

Root Cause

• The --tmp-dir option was not introduced until sos-1.7-9.54.el5.

• Note that a system's sos version is not tied to a specific release; however:

  • sos-1.7-9.49.el5 was available in RHEL 5.6 (no --tmp-dir option)
  • sos-1.7-9.54.el5 was first available in RHEL 5.7 (--tmp-dir available)
  • sysreport was used prior to introduction of sosreport in RHEL 4.6

Diagnostic Steps

• The sosreport command is provided by the sos package:

  # rpm -qf $(which sosreport)
  sos-1.7-9.74.el5_11
  

• Newer sos versions provide the --tmp-dir option:

  # sosreport --help | grep tmp
    --tmp-dir=TMPDIR      specify alternate temporary directory
  

• Note that in RHEL 7 that sosreport will use /var/tmp instead of /tmp, yet --tmp-dir can still be used when needed.

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