Creating temp Folder in java

Question

I need to create a temp folder where I can put some temp files for processing. I am not sure if I would have Read/Write access in the folder where my application jar would be executed.

1. Is it best to create the temp folder in the System's temp Directory ?
2. When I use the File tempFolder = File.createTempFile("fooo",""); Where is the folder created ? When I cd into the temp folder in my mac I am not able to see a folder by name fooo.

Answer 1

You are almost done with create tempfolder, see this:

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

public class TempFolder {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        File file = File.createTempFile("my_prefix", "");
        System.out.println(file.getAbsolutePath() + " isFile: " + file.isFile() + " isDir:" + file.isDirectory());
        file.delete();
        file.mkdir();
        System.out.println(file.getAbsolutePath() + " isFile: " + file.isFile() + " isDir:" + file.isDirectory());
    }
}

first createTempFile will make a real file for you, just remove it and make a directory using the same name.

I use osx, too. My result is:

/var/folders/aQ/aQLNlFLOF28xewK2A7i0X++++TM/-Tmp-/my_prefix8720723534029791962 isFile: true isDir:false
/var/folders/aQ/aQLNlFLOF28xewK2A7i0X++++TM/-Tmp-/my_prefix8720723534029791962 isFile: false isDir:true

Answer 2

You should use File.createTempFile() .

Where it gets created depends on your environment. Try printing out the full path of such a file if your are interested.

On my Mac (10.8.2) the system Java created a file in "/var/folders/qj/v2cqt0t91h1b4rzj1s0pc_780000gp/T/" just now.

Answer 3

When you call File tempFolder = File.createTempFile("fooo","") it will return a File object. You can then call

tempFolder.getAbsolutePath();

linked here

and this will give you the location. At a guess I would say it was in /tmp/ which you can get to in from the Finder

• choose Go to Folder
• from the Go menu type /tmp/

This will take you to folders that are hidden as well.

I know in windows you can type %temp% in the windows explorer address bar to take you to the temp directory. I am not sure if there is anything like this on OSX

Answer 4

Try printing out tempFolder.getAbsolutePath(). It should give you the path where this folder is created.