Should Dispose() or Finalize() be used to delete temporary files?

c# .net idisposable temporary-files
Eric Anastas picture Eric Anastas · Jul 13, 2010 · Viewed 12.5k times · Source

I have a class that makes use of temporary files (Path.GetTempFileName()) while it is active. I want to make sure these files do not remain on the user's hard drive taking up space after my program is closed. Right now my class has a Close() method which checks if any temporary files used by the class still exist and deletes them.

Would it make more sense to put this code in the Dispose() or Finalize() methods instead?

Answer

star picture star · Jul 13, 2010

Better yet would be to create the file with FileOptions.DeleteOnClose. This will ensure that the operating system forcibly deletes the file when your process exits (even in the case of a rude abort). Of course, you will still want to close/delete the file yourself when you are done with it, but this provides a nice backstop to ensure that you don't allow the files to be sit around forever

Example: 

using (FileStream fs = File.Create(Path.GetTempFileName(), Int16.MaxValue, 
       FileOptions.DeleteOnClose)) 
{ 

    // Use temp file 

} // The file will be deleted here

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