Working with the /tmp directory
The system temp directory (/tmp) is a local, writeable path on an application’s web servers on the VIP Platform. The /tmp directory is most commonly used to perform local manipulations to temporary files. For example, downloading a *.zip archive to /tmp, extracting its contents, then uploading the contents to the WordPress site’s /uploads/ directory on the VIP File System.
All filesystem functions will work as expected in /tmp, including directory traversal.
Considerations
- Use
get_temp_dir()
to determine the correct, writable directory path for temporary files. - If a temporary file needs to be generated, use
wp_tempnam()
. - Use
unlink()
to clean up and remove all local temporary files after they are no longer needed. Be sure to remove the files before the process that created them terminates. - Files and directories can only be relied on for the duration of the current request.
- Each request may be served by a different container and the sequence of requests from a given user are not guaranteed to be served by the same container.
- Containers are transient and may be created and destroyed due to autoscaling.
Last updated: December 30, 2022