PySide6.QtCore.QTemporaryFile

class QTemporaryFile

The QTemporaryFile class is an I/O device that operates on temporary files. More

Inheritance diagram of PySide6.QtCore.QTemporaryFile

Synopsis

Methods

Static functions

Note

This documentation may contain snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python. We always welcome contributions to the snippet translation. If you see an issue with the translation, you can also let us know by creating a ticket on https:/bugreports.qt.io/projects/PYSIDE

Detailed Description

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

QTemporaryFile is used to create unique temporary files safely. The file itself is created by calling open() . The name of the temporary file is guaranteed to be unique (i.e., you are guaranteed to not overwrite an existing file), and the file will subsequently be removed upon destruction of the QTemporaryFile object. This is an important technique that avoids data corruption for applications that store data in temporary files. The file name is either auto-generated, or created based on a template, which is passed to QTemporaryFile ‘s constructor.

Example:

# Within a function/method...
file = QTemporaryFile()
if file.open():
    # file.fileName() returns the unique file name

# The QTemporaryFile destructor removes the temporary file
# as it goes out of scope.

Reopening a QTemporaryFile after calling close() is safe. For as long as the QTemporaryFile object itself is not destroyed, the unique temporary file will exist and be kept open internally by QTemporaryFile .

The file name of the temporary file can be found by calling fileName() . Note that this is only defined after the file is first opened; the function returns an empty string before this.

A temporary file will have some static part of the name and some part that is calculated to be unique. The default filename will be determined from applicationName() (otherwise qt_temp) and will be placed into the temporary path as returned by tempPath() . If you specify your own filename, a relative file path will not be placed in the temporary directory by default, but be relative to the current working directory.

It is important to specify the correct directory if the rename() function will be called, as QTemporaryFile can only rename files within the same volume / filesystem as the temporary file itself was created on.

The file name (the part after the last directory path separator in the specified file template) can contain the special sequence "XXXXXX" (at least six upper case "X" characters), which will be replaced with the auto-generated portion of the file name. If the file name doesn’t contain "XXXXXX", QTemporaryFile will append the generated part to the file name. Only the first occurrence of "XXXXXX" will be considered.

Note

On Linux, QTemporaryFile will attempt to create unnamed temporary files. If that succeeds, open() will return true but exists() will be false. If you call fileName() or any function that calls it, QTemporaryFile will give the file a name, so most applications will not see a difference.

See also

tempPath() QFile

__init__()

Constructs a QTemporaryFile .

The default file name template is determined from the application name as returned by applicationName() (or "qt_temp" if the application name is empty), followed by ".XXXXXX". The file is stored in the system’s temporary directory, as returned by tempPath() .

__init__(parent)
Parameters:

parentQObject

Constructs a QTemporaryFile with the given parent.

The default file name template is determined from the application name as returned by applicationName() (or "qt_temp" if the application name is empty), followed by ".XXXXXX". The file is stored in the system’s temporary directory, as returned by tempPath() .

__init__(templateName)
Parameters:

templateName – str

Constructs a QTemporaryFile with templateName as the file name template.

Upon opening the temporary file, templateName will be used to create a unique filename.

If the file name (the part after the last directory path separator in templateName) doesn’t contain "XXXXXX", it will be added automatically.

"XXXXXX" will be replaced with the dynamic part of the file name, which is calculated to be unique.

If templateName is a relative path, the path will be relative to the current working directory. You can use tempPath() to construct templateName if you want use the system’s temporary directory.

It is important to specify the correct directory if the rename() function will be called, as QTemporaryFile can only rename files within the same volume / filesystem as the temporary file itself was created on.

__init__(templateName, parent)
Parameters:
  • templateName – str

  • parentQObject

Constructs a QTemporaryFile with the specified parent, and templateName as the file name template.

Upon opening the temporary file, templateName will be used to create a unique filename.

If the file name (the part after the last directory path separator in templateName) doesn’t contain "XXXXXX", it will be added automatically.

"XXXXXX" will be replaced with the dynamic part of the file name, which is calculated to be unique.

If templateName is a relative path, the path will be relative to the current working directory. You can use tempPath() to construct templateName if you want use the system’s temporary directory. It is important to specify the correct directory if the rename() function will be called, as QTemporaryFile can only rename files within the same volume / filesystem as the temporary file itself was created on.

autoRemove()
Return type:

bool

Returns true if the QTemporaryFile is in auto remove mode. Auto-remove mode will automatically delete the filename from disk upon destruction. This makes it very easy to create your QTemporaryFile object on the stack, fill it with data, read from it, and finally on function return it will automatically clean up after itself.

Auto-remove is on by default.

static createNativeFile(file)
Parameters:

fileQFile

Return type:

QTemporaryFile

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

If file is not already a native file, then a QTemporaryFile is created in tempPath() , the contents of file is copied into it, and a pointer to the temporary file is returned. Does nothing and returns 0 if file is already a native file.

For example:

f = QFile(":/resources/file.txt")
QTemporaryFile.createNativeFile(f) # Returns a pointer to a temporary file
f = QFile("/users/qt/file.txt")
QTemporaryFile.createNativeFile(f) # Returns 0

See also

isNativePath()

static createNativeFile(fileName)
Parameters:

fileName – str

Return type:

QTemporaryFile

This is an overloaded function.

Works on the given fileName rather than an existing QFile object.

fileTemplate()
Return type:

str

Returns the file name template.

The file name template returned by this method, will be relative or absolute depending on the file name template used to construct this object (or passed to setFileTemplate() ) being relative or absolute, respectively.

See also

setFileTemplate() fileName() Default File Name Template

open()
Return type:

bool

A QTemporaryFile will always be opened in QIODevice::ReadWrite mode, this allows easy access to the data in the file. This function will return true upon success and will set the fileName() to the unique filename used.

See also

fileName() QT_USE_NODISCARD_FILE_OPEN

setAutoRemove(b)
Parameters:

b – bool

Sets the QTemporaryFile into auto-remove mode if b is true.

Auto-remove is on by default.

If you set this property to false, ensure the application provides a way to remove the file once it is no longer needed, including passing the responsibility on to another process. Always use the fileName() function to obtain the name and never try to guess the name that QTemporaryFile has generated.

On some systems, if fileName() is not called before closing the file, the temporary file may be removed regardless of the state of this property. This behavior should not be relied upon, so application code should either call fileName() or leave the auto removal functionality enabled.

setFileTemplate(name)
Parameters:

name – str

Sets the file name template to templateName.

If the file name (the part after the last directory path separator in templateName) doesn’t contain "XXXXXX", it will be added automatically.

"XXXXXX" will be replaced with the dynamic part of the file name, which is calculated to be unique.

If templateName is a relative path, the path will be relative to the current working directory. You can use tempPath() to construct templateName if you want use the system’s temporary directory. It is important to specify the correct directory if the rename() function will be called, as QTemporaryFile can only rename files within the same volume / filesystem as the temporary file itself was created on.

See also

fileTemplate() fileName()