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Groups > comp.lang.python > #102921

Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file

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Howdy all,

How should a program generate a unique filesystem path and *not* create
the filesystem entry?

The ‘tempfile.mktemp’ function is strongly deprecated, and rightly so
<URL:https://docs.python.org/3/library/tempfile.html#tempfile.mktemp>
because it leaves the program vulnerable to insecure file creation.

In some code (e.g. unit tests) I am calling ‘tempfile.mktemp’ to
generate a unique path for a filesystem entry that I *do not want* to
exist on the real filesystem. In this case the filesystem security
concerns are irrelevant because there is no file.

The deprecation of that function is a concern still, because I don't
want code that makes every conscientious reader need to decide whether
the code is a problem. Instead the code should avoid rightly-deprecated
APIs.

It is also prone to that API function disappearing at some point in the
future, because it is explicitly and strongly deprecated.

So I agree with the deprecation, but the library doesn't appear to
provide a replacement.

What standard library function should I be using to generate
‘tempfile.mktemp’-like unique paths, and *not* ever create a real file
by that path?

-- 
 \        “If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you |
  `\     have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither |
_o__)                       on your side, pound the table.” —anonymous |
Ben Finney

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Thread

Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2016-02-15 08:46 +1100
  Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2016-02-14 23:48 +0100
  Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2016-02-15 15:46 +0000
  Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file "Mario R. Osorio" <nimbiotics@gmail.com> - 2016-02-15 20:46 -0800
    Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2016-02-16 16:03 +1100

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