Go: Create a temporary file or directory

File

Use ioutil.TempFile in package io/ioutil to create a temporary file:

file, err := ioutil.TempFile("dir", "prefix")
if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
}
defer os.Remove(file.Name())

fmt.Println(file.Name()) // For example "dir/prefix054003078"

The call to ioutil.TempFile

• creates a new file with a name starting with "prefix"
• in the directory "dir",
• opens the file for reading and writing,
• and returns the new *os.File.

To put the new file in os.TempDir(), the default directory for temporary files, call ioutil.TempFile with an empty directory string.

Directory

Use ioutil.TempDir in package io/ioutil to create a temporary directory:

dir, err := ioutil.TempDir("dir", "prefix")
if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
}
defer os.RemoveAll(dir)

The call to ioutil.TempDir

• creates a new directory with a name starting with "prefix"
• in the directory "dir",
• and returns the path of the new directory.

To put the new directory in os.TempDir(), the default directory for temporary files, call ioutil.TempDir with an empty directory string.