TMPDIR is the canonical

environment variable An environment variable is a dynamic-named value that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer. They are part of the environment in which a process runs. For example, a running process can query the value of the TEMP envi ...

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...

and

POSIX The Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) is a family of standards specified by the IEEE Computer Society for maintaining compatibility between operating systems. POSIX defines both the system- and user-level application programming inter ...

that should be used to specify a

temporary directory In computing, a temporary folder or temporary directory is a directory used to hold temporary files. Many operating systems and some software automatically delete the contents of this directory at bootup or at regular intervals, leaving the direc ...

for scratch space. Most Unix programs will honor this setting and use its value to denote the scratch area for temporary files instead of the common default of or . Other forms sometimes accepted are TEMP, TEMPDIR and TMP, but these alternatives are used more commonly by non-

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

s or non-conformant programs. TMPDIR is specified in various Unix and similar standards, e.g. per the Single UNIX Specification.

References

Unix file system technology Environment variables {{Unix-stub

See also

References