Binary not being removed from filesystem

Question

We have binaries which are both dynamic, but can also be manually added to components. PDF's in this particular case.

• The binary is unpublished
• The references to the components it was linked to have been removed
• The related pages (where the components where on) have been re-published.

But, the binary (PDF) is still available when requested directly. Yes, cache had been cleared ;-)

What am I missing here?

Update: They are being published using the XSLT Mediator, so in the C# code the binary is published using:

this._engine.PublishingContext.RenderedItem.AddBinary(component);

Answer 1

As you probably know by now, the decision to remove a binary is taken by the deployer based on the number of references to that binary. Once the number of references reaches 0, the deployer will remove the binary.

If you have access to the Broker database, you can try to find which items reference a given binary by running a query +/- like this:

select * from REFERENCE_ENTRIES where REFERENCED_URI='tcd:pub[13]/binarymeta[1625]'

Where pub[13] should be updated to match your publication ID and binarymeta[1625] should be updated to match your binary's component ID. This will give you a list of the Component Presentations and/or Pages that reference that binary. If you get 1 or more results, it means that the deployer cannot remove the binary because it's still needed. If you do get 0 results then you may be in the "unmanaged binary" scenario described by Bart & Pankaj.

Answer 2

Please understand following:

Every time you publish a PDF, SDL Tridion maintains a reference count in the Broker database. On the other hand, when you un-publish a PDF the reference count is reduced.

Once the reference count hits zero the PDF will be removed from the file system.

Now check even after un-publishing whether it is still available on the file system and that should be only reason it is appearing while requesting directly.

My suggestion, try "Where Used" for the PDF and un-publish all the components/pages it is associated with in addition to un-publishing the PDF individually with the dynamic template.

Additionally, you may try creating a fresh PDF component, and try your publishing-un-publishing process to check if it getting removed from the file system or not.

Answer 3

I've seen this problem after synchronizing DTAP environments (DB restore from PROD to ACC) where the binary was removed on PROD and there is no way left to remove the reference from the ACC broker...

Can you verify this problem is reproduce-able with new items? So creating a new MM component, putting it "into a page" via a component link and publishing the MM component itself, then removing the MM component from the page (by breaking the component link) and then republishing the page and unpublishing the component?

Does that always leave you with no references to the binary in the broker and a removed file (the expected situation for a working product scenario)? Or is the result different?