How to create a temporary file and delete after

Question

I'm writing some test cases and I want to create a temporary csv file and remove it after the test completes. For some reason, the file persists.

I was under the impression that the file only exists for the duration of the with scope. Also, am I able to access the file with the rows I have just written within the same scope?

Here is what I have so far.

    with open('test.csv', 'w') as file:
        writer = csv.writer(file)
        writer.writerows(row_list)
        return handle_upload_file(file)

My handle_upload_file just reads the data from a csv file. Could it be that the function is erroring out because the file is not in the correct format causing the file to never be deleted after?

Does this answer your question? [How can I create a tmp file in Python?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8577137/how-can-i-create-a-tmp-file-in-python) OR [create temporary file in python that will be deleted automatically after sometime](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44798879/create-temporary-file-in-python-that-will-be-deleted-automatically-after-sometim) — Tomerikoo, Nov 04 '20 at 15:43

rainer · Answer 1 · 2020-11-04T15:50:05.963

Once you leave the scope, the file will be closed, not deleted. You will need to delete the file explicitly afterwards, eg. using https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.html#os.unlink:

with open('test.csv', 'w') as file:
    # whatever you need to do
    pass
os.unlink('test.csv')

You might be looking for something like https://docs.python.org/3/library/tempfile.html, by the way; see https://stackoverflow.com/a/8577226/1683161.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 04 '20 at 15:42

0

File is closed but not deleted. You have to delete it manually.

os.remove("test.csv")

answered Nov 04 '20 at 15:42

zvi

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How to create a temporary file and delete after

2 Answers2