Simple, robust temporary file support for Elixir.

Highlighted Features

• Create temporary files with prefix and extname options.
• Files are removed after the requesting process exits.
• File creation is based on Plug.Upload's robust retry logic.
• Configurable; built-in support for system environment variables and fallbacks.

Usage

The fastest way to use Briefly is with Mix.install/2 (requires Elixir v1.12+):

Mix.install([
  {:briefly, "~> 0.5.0"}
])

{:ok, path} = Briefly.create()
File.write!(path, "My temp file contents")
File.read!(path)
# => "My temp file contents"

# When this process exits, the file at `path` is removed

If you want to use Briefly in a Mix project, you can add the above dependency to your list of dependencies in mix.exs.

To use Briefly outside of the context of an application's dependency tree (e.g. in an .exs file), first run Briefly.start.

Briefly can also create a temporary directory:

{:ok, dir} = Briefly.create(type: :directory)
File.write!(Path.join(dir, "test.txt"), "Some Text")
# When this process exits, the directory and file are removed

Refer to the documentation for a list of options that are available to Briefly.create/1 and Briefly.create!/1.

Configuration

The default, out-of-the-box settings for Briefly are equivalent to the following Mix config:

# config/config.exs
config :briefly,
  directory: [{:system, "TMPDIR"}, {:system, "TMP"}, {:system, "TEMP"}, "/tmp"],
  directory_mode: 0o755,
  default_prefix: "briefly",
  default_extname: ""

directory here declares an ordered list of possible directory definitions that Briefly will check in order.

The {:system, env_var} tuples point to system environment variables to be checked. If none of these are defined, Briefly will use the final entry: /tmp.

You can override the settings with your own candidates in your application Mix config (and pass prefix and extname to Briefly.create to override default_prefix and default_extname on a case-by-case basis).