C++: Getting a temporary file, cross-platform

c++ temporary-files
orlp picture orlp · Apr 7, 2011 · Viewed 31.2k times · Source

I'm looking for a cross-platform way of getting designated a temporary file. For example in linux that would be in the /tmp dir and in Windows in some crappy named Internet Explorer temp dir.

Does a cross-platform (Boost?) solution to this exist?

EDIT:

I need this file to exist until the program terminates. tmpfile() does not guarantee that. Quoting from ccpreference:

The temporary file created is automatically deleted when the stream is closed (fclose) or when the program terminates normally.

Answer

Robbie Morrison picture Robbie Morrison · Jul 4, 2012

The Boost Filesystem library, from version 3 of that library, can be used to create a temporary file name. It also offers a crisp solution. Indeed, the following C++ code should be platform independent:

// Boost.Filesystem VERSION 3 required
#include <string>
#include <boost/filesystem.hpp>
boost::filesystem::path temp = boost::filesystem::unique_path();
const std::string tempstr    = temp.native();  // optional

The filesystem path object temp can be used to open a file or create a subdirectory, while the string object tempstr offers the same information as a string. See http://www.boost.org for more details.

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