Tempfile

Tempfile is a server specifically for managing temporary files. New random file are created in a temporary location and are automatically cleaned up when the requesting process exits.

Because tempfile creation is stateful, the :tempfile application must be started in order to use the Tempfile module.

Acknowledgements & Alternatives

This is almost entirely a port of plug’s Plug.Upload module. There are some slight modifications around file naming, but the GenServer itself is derived wholesale from Plug.

If you want a more robust alternative look at briefly, which also provides temporary file handling (but has a less discoverable name).

Installation

The package can be installed from hex as tempfile:

1. Add tempfile to your list of dependencies in mix.exs:

   def deps do

   [{:tempfile, "~> 0.1.0"}]

   end

2. Ensure tempfile is started before your application:

   def application do

   [applications: [:tempfile]]

   end

Usage

Create a new temporary file with a basename and extension:

{:ok, path} = Tempfile.random("tempfile.txt")
File.write!(path, "I am a text file")

When the calling process exits the file will be removed automatically.

License

MIT License, see LICENSE.txt for details.