Temporary folder

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In computing, a temporary folder or temporary directory is a

directory used to hold temporary files. Many operating systems and some software automatically delete the contents of this directory at bootup
or at regular intervals, leaving the directory itself intact.

For

race conditions
.

A standard procedure for

system administration
is to reduce the amount of storage space used (typically, on a disk drive) by removing temporary files. In multi-user systems, this can potentially remove active files, disrupting users' activities. To avoid this, some space-reclaiming procedures remove only files which are inactive or "old" - those which have not been read or modified in several days.

Practical issues

In Unix, the /tmp directory will often be a separate

RAM disks" set up in random-access memory
or the shared-memory device /dev/shm in Linux.

A Flash-based solid-state drive is less suitable as a temporary-storage device for reading and writing due to the asymmetric read/write duration and due to wear. (See wear leveling.)

Traditional locations

In MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows, the temporary directory is set by the environment variable TEMP or TMP.[1] Using the Window API, one can find the path to the temporary directory using the GetTempPath2 function,[2] or one can obtain a path to a uniquely-named temporary file using the GetTempFileName function.[3] Originally, the default was C:\Temp, then %WinDir%\Temp. In the Windows XP era, the temporary directory was set per-user as Local Settings\Temp, although still user-relocatable. For Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10 the temp location has moved again to within the AppData section of the User Profile, typically C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Local\Temp (%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp). In all versions of Windows, the Temp location can be accessed, for example, in Explorer, "Run..." boxes and in an application's internal code by using %TMP% or %TEMP%. As with other environmental variables, %TMP% or %TEMP% is synonymous with the full path.

In

allowed
).

In macOS, a sandboxed application cannot use the standard Unix locations, but may use a user-specific directory whose path is provided by the function NSTemporaryDirectory.[6]

In OpenVMS, SYS$SCRATCH[7] and in AmigaDOS T: are used.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Recognized Environment Variables". Microsoft. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  2. ^ "GetTempPath2A function (fileapi.h)". Microsoft. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  3. ^ "GetTempFileNameA function (fileapi.h)". Microsoft. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  4. ^ "Temporary files preserved between system reboots". Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  5. ^ "Temporary Files". Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  6. ^ "App Sandbox Design Guide". Apple. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  7. ^ "VSI OpenVMS User's Manual" (PDF). VMS Software, Inc. p. 244. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Temporary_folder&oldid=1077771653"