TempFiles Class Reference

Temporary files that live until the process exits. More...

#include <OpenMS/SYSTEM/TempFiles.h>

Classes
class	Registry_
	Holds the allocated filenames and deletes the files at program exit. More...

Static Public Member Functions
static std::string	getTemporaryFile (const std::string &alternative_file="")
	Obtain a temporary filename, ensuring automatic deletion upon exit.

Static Private Attributes
static Registry_	registry_
	filenames handed out so far, deleted upon program exit

Detailed Description

Temporary files that live until the process exits.

Names are allocated below SystemSettings::getTempDirectory() and every file that still exists at exit is removed.

Member Function Documentation

getTemporaryFile()

static std::string getTemporaryFile ( const std::string &  alternative_file = "" )

static

Obtain a temporary filename, ensuring automatic deletion upon exit.

The file is not actually created and only deleted at exit if it exists.

However, if 'alternative_file' is given and not empty, no temporary filename is created and 'alternative_file' is returned (and not destroyed upon exit). This is useful if you have an optional output file, which may, or may not be requested, but you need its content regardless, e.g. for intermediate plotting with R. Thus you can just call this function to get a file which can be used and gets automatically destroyed if needed.

Parameters

[in]

alternative_file

If this string is not empty, no action is taken and it is used as return value

Returns

Full path to a temporary file

Member Data Documentation

registry_

Registry_ registry_

staticprivate

filenames handed out so far, deleted upon program exit