Creating a temporary file

Rust:
Creating a temporary file

How to:

In Rust, the tempfile crate is a good friend for temp file shenanigans. Add it to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
tempfile = "3.3.0"

Then, you can create a temp file like so:

use tempfile::NamedTempFile;
use std::io::{Write, Read};

fn main() -> std::io::Result<()> {
    let mut temp_file = NamedTempFile::new()?;
    write!(temp_file, "Hello, world!")?;

    let mut content = String::new();
    temp_file.reopen()?.read_to_string(&mut content)?;
    println!("Temp file contains: {}", content);

    // Temp file gets deleted here when `temp_file` goes out of scope
    Ok(())
}

Run the code. Magic happens. A file appears, then poof—gone when you’re done.

Deep Dive

Historically, temporary files are as old as hills in computing. They’ve always been a simple but effective way to handle data that doesn’t need long-term storage. In Rust’s world, tempfile crate smoothes out the temp file process, automatically cleaning files up when they’re no longer needed, avoiding the old headache of manual cleanup.

Alternatives? Sure, you could roll your own solution with std::fs and manual cleanup, but why reinvent the wheel?

What about details? tempfile creates files in the operating system’s designated temp directory, and file names are scrambled to prevent collisions and enhance security.

Rust:Creating a temporary file

How to:

Deep Dive

See Also

Rust:
Creating a temporary file