Rails - Creating temp files in a portable way

Question

My rails application runs on a Ubuntu server machine.

I need to create temporary files in order to "feed" them to a second, independent app (I'll be using rake tasks for this, in case this information is needed)

My question is: what is the best way of creating temporary fields on a rails application?

Since I'm in ubuntu, I could create them on /tmp/whatever, but what would work only in linux.

I'd like my application to be as portable as possible - so it can be installed on Windows machines & mac, if needed.

Any ideas?

Thanks a lot.

kikito · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-10T09:59:47.897

41

tmp/ is definitively the right place to put the files.

The best way I've found of creating files on that folder is using ruby's tempfile library.

The code looks like this:

require 'tempfile'

def foo()
  # creates a temporary file in tmp/
  Tempfile.open('prefix', Rails.root.join('tmp') ) do |f|
    f.print('a temp message')
    f.flush
    #... do more stuff with f
  end
end

I like this solution because:

It generates random file names automatically (you can provide a prefix)
It automatically deletes the files when they are no longer used. For example, if invoked on a rake task, the files are removed when the rake task ends.

edited Nov 10 '11 at 09:59

answered Jan 27 '10 at 12:33

kikito

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Cool, what a useful abstraction. – elsurudo Jun 04 '13 at 19:37
1

`file.path` to refer to the tmp file if you are looking for it ! – Mithun Satheesh Feb 26 '15 at 13:15

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 25 '10 at 09:47

7

Rails apps also have their own tmp/ directory. I guess that one is always available and thus a good candidate to use and keep your application portable.

answered Jan 25 '10 at 09:47

Veger

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Rails - Creating temp files in a portable way

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