Creating a temporary directory in Windows?

Josh_Kelley_25507 0
Viewed 101620

What's the best way to get a temp directory name in Windows? I see that I can use GetTempPath and GetTempFileName to create a temporary file, but is there any equivalent to the Linux / BSD mkdtemp function for creating a temporary directory?

temporary-directory windows .net c#
9 Answers

No, there is no equivalent to mkdtemp. The best option is to use a combination of GetTempPath and GetRandomFileName.

You would need code similar to this:

public string GetTemporaryDirectory()
{
   string tempDirectory = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), Path.GetRandomFileName());
   Directory.CreateDirectory(tempDirectory);
   return tempDirectory;
}
Scott_Dorman_15590

I used some of the answers and implemented GetTmpDirectory method this way.

public string GetTmpDirectory()
{
    string tmpDirectory;

    do
    {
        tmpDirectory = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(Path.GetRandomFileName()));
    } while (Directory.Exists(tmpDirectory));

    Directory.CreateDirectory(tmpDirectory);
    return tmpDirectory;
}
user_123216740

As mentioned above, Path.GetTempPath() is one way to do it. You could also call Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TEMP") if the user has a TEMP environment variable set up.

If you are planning on using the temp directory as a means of persisting data in the application, you probably should look at using IsolatedStorage as a repository for configuration/state/etc...

Chris_Rauber_259390

GetTempPath is the correct way of doing it; I'm not sure what your concern about this method is. You can then use CreateDirectory to make it.

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