all Python 3tempfilefunction

tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile()

temporary files

Creates a temporary file that has a visible name in the file system, so its path f.name can be passed to other code.

Syntax

tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(mode='w+b', ..., suffix=None, prefix=None, dir=None, delete=True, *, errors=None, delete_on_close=True)

By default the file is deleted when closed, so on Windows it cannot be reopened by name while still open, and after closing it is gone everywhere. Since Python 3.12, delete_on_close=False keeps the file after close() and deletes it only when the with block exits, so you can close it and hand it to another program. delete=False keeps the file forever, and you must remove it yourself with os.remove().

Examples

import os, tempfile
with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(suffix='.txt') as f:
    print(f.name.endswith('.txt'), os.path.exists(f.name))  # → True True
print(os.path.exists(f.name))  # → False — удалён при закрытии

# Python 3.12+
import os, tempfile
with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile('w', encoding='utf-8', delete_on_close=False) as f:
    f.write('data')
    f.close()
    print(open(f.name, encoding='utf-8').read())  # → data
print(os.path.exists(f.name))  # → False

See also

Open in the full glossarydocs.python.orgReport an inaccuracy