Python Temporary Files and Directories

External

• https://docs.python.org/3/library/tempfile.html

Internal

• File Operations in Python

Auto-Deleting Temporary Files and Directories

TemporaryFile, NamedTemporaryFile and TemporaryDirectory are classes that provide temporary files and directories that, in conjunction with the with reserved word, are self-deleting when we the program gets out of scope.

Temporary Files and Directories to be Deleted by the Caller

Temporary Directory to be Deleted by the Caller

Create a named temporary file, write in it and return the name. The file is not automatically deleted after close(), the caller will need to delete it:

import tempfile
with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(mode='w+t', delete=False) as t:
  t.write(something)
  return t.name