[Python-Dev] Remove tempfile.mktemp() (original) (raw)

Antoine Pitrou solipsis at pitrou.net
Tue Mar 19 09:23:39 EDT 2019

-1. Please don't remove tempfile.mktemp(). mktemp() is useful to create a temporary name. All other tempfile functions create an actual file and impose additional burden, for example by making the file unaccessible by other processes. But sometimes all I want is a temporary name that an other program will create / act on, not Python. It's a very common use case when writing scripts.

The only reasonable workaround I can think of is to first create a temporary directory using mkdtemp(), then use a well-known name inside that directory. But that has the same security implications AFAICT, since another process can come and create the file / symlink first.

Regards

Antoine.

On Tue, 19 Mar 2019 14:03:11 +0100 Stéphane Wirtel <stephane at wirtel.be> wrote:

Hi,

Context: raise a warning or remove tempfile.mktemp() BPO: https://bugs.python.org/issue36309 Since 2.3, this function is deprecated in the documentation, just in the documentation. In the code, there is a commented RuntimeWarning. Commented by Guido in 2002, because the warning was too annoying (and I understand ;-)). So, in this BPO, we start to discuss about the future of this function and Serhiy proposed to discuss on the Python-dev mailing list. Question: Should we drop it or add a (Pending)DeprecationWarning? Suggestion and timeline: 3.8, we raise a PendingDeprecationWarning * update the code * update the documentation * update the tests (check a PendingDeprecationWarning if sys.versioninfo == 3.8) 3.9, we change PendingDeprecationWarning to DeprecationWarning (check DeprecationWarning if sys.versioninfo == 3.9) 3.9+, we drop tempfile.mktemp() What do you suggest? Have a nice day and thank you for your feedback.

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