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Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 13:28:48 -0800
Subject: Re: APR_TMP_DIRECTORY
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From: Aaron Bannert <aaron@clove.org>
To: dev@apr.apache.org
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In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.33L2.0212051322300.8056-100000@vangogh.rkbloom.net>
Message-Id: <8AE6141E-0898-11D7-9902-000393B3C494@clove.org>


On Thursday, December 5, 2002, at 01:26  PM, <rbb@apache.org> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 5 Dec 2002, Aaron Bannert wrote:
>> Can anyone think of a case where temp files on Unix do not belong in
>> either 1) /tmp or 2) a user-defined location?
>
> I know of a couple of Unix platforms that use /var/tmp, yes.  But more
> importantly, what makes you think Unix doesn't use environment 
> variables
> for locating a temp directory?  Try doing a man on tempfile some time. 
>  I
> quote:

Can a single temp directory be discovered by autoconf at build time and
still apply for binary distributions? (Are there platforms where the
same binary would work but the default temp dir might change?)

>
>        The directory to place the file is  searched  for  in  the
>        following order:
>
>        a)     The directory specified by the environment variable
>               TMPDIR, if it is writable.
>
>        b)     The directory specified by  the  --directory  argu-
>               ment, if given.
>
>        c)     The directory /tmp.

This is from the GNU, and as the name implies, GNU's Not Unix. :)

> That's Linux, and it is a standard utility to create temporary files.  
> It
> is looking for an environment variable first.
>
> Like I said, different Unix platforms have different mechanisms for
> locating temporary directories, (although I have never seen one that
> didn't use $(TEMP) as a fallback).  Leave it up to the platform to 
> locate
> temp files if the user doesn't provide one.  Don't force the user to 
> jump
> through hoops to setup a default, the platform has already done that 
> for
> us.

But you just showed an example where it was _not_ $(TEMP) but instead
$(TMPDIR). I am asserting that they are not standard nor are they
consistent. Though, all of that is irrelevant because allowing
environment variables to define program behavior is totally
bogus [on systems I care about].

-aaron