On Thu, 5 Dec 2002, Aaron Bannert wrote:
>
> On Thursday, December 5, 2002, at 01:07 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > What exactly is the argument against using the proposed API? That we
> > shouldn't use environment variables? The environment variables are a
> > mechanism that some platforms use for locating the temp directory. To
> > ignore them would be stupid and it would make it harder to APR app
> > developers to write their code.
>
> Unix does not use environment variables for locating a temp directory.
> That's fine if Windows does that, and that's fine if some Unix apps
> decide they want to do it that way, but it is not standard and it
> not defensive system programming.
>
> 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:
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.
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.
Ryan
