How to get a temporary file path?

Question

I know you can create a temporary file with tmpfile and than write to it, and close it when it is not needed anymore. But the problem I have is that I need the absolute path to the file like this:

"/var/www/html/lolo/myfile.xml"

Can I somehow get the path, even with some other function or trick?

EDIT:

I want to be able to download the file from the database, but without

$fh = fopen("/var/www/html/myfile.xml", 'w') or die("no no");
fwrite($fh, $fileData);
fclose($fh); 

because if I do it like this, there is a chance of overlapping, if more people try to download the same file at exactly the same time. Or am I wrong?

EDIT2:

Maybe I can just generate unique(uniqID) filenames like that, and than delete them. Or can this be too consuming for the server if many people are downloading?

Answer 1

There are many ways you can achieve this, here is one

<?php 
// Create a temp file in the temporary 
// files directory using sys_get_temp_dir()
$temp_file = tempnam(sys_get_temp_dir(), 'MyFileName');
echo $temp_file;
?>

The above example will output something similar to: /var/tmp/MyFileNameX322.tmp

Answer 2

I know you can create a temporary file with tmpfile

That is a good start, something like this will do:

$fileHandleResource = tmpfile();

Can I somehow get the path, even with some other function or trick?

Yes:

$metaData = stream_get_meta_data($fileHandleResource);
$filepath = $metaData['uri'];

This approach has the benefit of leaving it up to PHP to pick a good place and name for this temporary file, which could end up being a good thing or a bad thing depending on your needs. But it is the simplest way to do this if you don't yet have a specific reason to pick your own directory and filename.

References:

http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.stream-get-meta-data.php

Getting filename (or deleting file) using file handle

Answer 3

This will give you the directory. I guess after that you are on your own.

Answer 4

Just in case someone encounters exactly the same problem. I ended up doing

$fh = fopen($filepath, 'w') or die("Can't open file $name for writing temporary stuff.");
fwrite($fh, $fileData);
fclose($fh);

and

unlink($filepath); 

at the end when file is not needed anymore.

Before that, I generated filename like that:

$r = rand();        
$filepath = "/var/www/html/someDirectory/$name.$r.xml";

Answer 5

I just generated a temporary file, deleted it, and created a folder with the same name

$tempFolder = tempnam(sys_get_temp_dir(), 'MyFileName');
unlink($tempFolder);
mkdir($tempFolder);