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Is there an environment variable to set the temporary directory on debian based systems?

I have a java applet that uses that environement variable and it's getting confused when launching two instances of the same applet.

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8 Answers 8

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I am unsure if the java applet will actually look at the environment variables before it starts, but what you can do it edit /etc/profile and add the following lines:

if [[ -O /home/$USER/tmp && -d /home/$USER/tmp ]]; then
        TMPDIR=/home/$USER/tmp
else
        # You may wish to remove this line, it is there in case
        # a user has put a file 'tmp' in there directory or a
        rm -rf /home/$USER/tmp 2> /dev/null
        mkdir -p /home/$USER/tmp
        TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d /home/$USER/tmp/XXXX)
fi

TMP=$TMPDIR
TEMP=$TMPDIR

export TMPDIR TMP TEMP

To make it a true tmp directory (as in the files go away when the session is ended, you'll want to edit the user's .bash_logout as well as the skeleton .bash_logout (/etc/skel/.bash_logout) to include the following:

if [ -O $TMPDIR && -d $TMPDIR ]; then
        rm -rf $TMPDIR/*
fi

The logout portion is dangerous is the variable doesn't get set and your logged in as root! I wouldn't add this to the root account or anyone that is a member of the wheel group! Proceed at your own caution.

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    I wouldn't put the cleanup into .bash_logout at all - what happens if they open up two sessions and log out of one? Use tmpwatch. :)
    – MikeyB
    Commented Oct 10, 2009 at 4:19
  • That is a much better cleanup solution, thanks for adding that. :)
    – TrueDuality
    Commented Oct 16, 2009 at 12:34
  • NB: the tmpwatch command does not exists on BSD (e.g. OSX) version of unix, for anyone going for portability. My CentOS boxes have it though. :)
    – Cometsong
    Commented Nov 29, 2018 at 14:44
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The file you are looking for is:

/etc/environment

You have to set the TEMP variable like:

TEMP=/home/user/tmp
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  • 6
    And even export TEMP=/home/user/tmp
    – Fedir RYKHTIK
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 15:06
  • @Fedir that is in the shell, yes.
    – cstamas
    Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 19:33
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If you want /home/user/tmp to be cleaned on reboot, I suggest you add an @reboot job to the user's personal crontab.

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Java uses the system property java.io.tmpdir to configure the temporary directory. A reasonable JRE will set that to a sensible value based on the system if not explicitly specified.

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For me this worked when i was trying to install a jar file using java.

export _JAVA_OPTIONS="-Djava.io.tmpdir=/apps/prod/tmp"

I use a Red Hat Linux. /apps/prod/tmp being the new folder.

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export TMPDIR=/path/to/desired/tmp

Use that before running desired command.

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    This will only print the text TMPDIR=/path/to/desired/tmp. Nothing else.
    – Gerald Schneider
    Commented Feb 25, 2022 at 14:16
  • Sorry about that. Had to be export not echo. It really saved me a ot of pain. Some process was writing extremely large files to /tmp and I didn't want to allocate the space just for it. Or, reboot.
    – nyxee
    Commented Mar 3, 2022 at 7:34
  • This will work for Scripts using mktemp.
    – exic
    Commented Oct 4, 2023 at 14:02
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In C, I would use the tmpfile() call for a posix system, which would avoid the collision. So I would look for a similar Java call before trying to implement it myself, if you haven't already.

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  • This assumes he is the one developing the application
    – TrueDuality
    Commented Oct 9, 2009 at 15:00
  • TrueDuality: Ah, my mistake
    – Kyle Brandt
    Commented Oct 9, 2009 at 15:17
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    Java has java.io.File.createTempFile. Now with added secure RNG.
    – Tom Hawtin - tackline
    Commented Oct 13, 2009 at 0:20
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https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/SearchDocDisplay?_adf.ctrl-state=1dab2wir99_201&_afrLoop=305930829027924#SYMPTOM

export _JAVA_OPTIONS="-Djava.io.tmpdir=<local path>"

Eg:

export _JAVA_OPTIONS="-Djava.io.tmpdir=/home/user/tmp"
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