[Python-Dev] Rationale for NamedTemporaryFile? (original) (raw)

dustin at v.igoro.us dustin at v.igoro.us
Sun Mar 18 04:31:44 CET 2007

On Sun, Mar 18, 2007 at 11:49:55AM +1200, Greg Ewing wrote:

I've just discovered the hard way that NamedTemporaryFile automatically deletes the file when you close it. That doesn't seem very useful to me, since surely the reason you're using NamedTemporaryFile instead of TemporaryFile is that you want to do something else with it afterwards? What's the rationale for this behaviour?

For both TemporaryFile and NamedTemporaryFile, the rationale is that "temporary" extends until the object is garbage collected. TemporaryFile is deleted immediately (to prevent other applications from modifying your temporary file). NamedTemporaryFile is inteded for use when you need access to the file by filename during the lifetime of the file. In either case, when the object goes, the file should too.

Dustin

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