Currently I am using following function to get the temporary folder path for current user:
string tempPath = System.IO.Path.GetTempPath();
On some machines it gives me temp folder path of current user like:
C:\Documents and Settings\administrator\Local Settings\Temp\
On some machines it gives me system temp folder path like:
C:\Windows\TEMP
MSDN Documentation also says that above API returns current system's temporary folder.
Is there any other API available which gives me current user's temporary folder path like this:
C:\Documents and Settings\administrator\Local Settings\Temp\
System.IO.Path.GetTempPath()
is just a wrapper for a native call to GetTempPath(..)
in Kernel32.
Have a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa364992(VS.85).aspx
Copied from that page:
The GetTempPath function checks for the existence of environment variables in the following order and uses the first path found: The path specified by the TMP environment variable. The path specified by the TEMP environment variable. The path specified by the USERPROFILE environment variable. The Windows directory.
It's not entirely clear to me whether "The Windows directory" means the temp directory under windows or the windows directory itself. Dumping temp files in the windows directory itself sounds like an undesirable case, but who knows.
So combining that page with your post I would guess that either one of the TMP, TEMP or USERPROFILE variables for your Administrator user points to the windows path, or else they're not set and it's taking a fallback to the windows temp path.
DO NOT use this:
System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TEMP")
Environment variables can be overridden, so the TEMP
variable is not necessarily the directory.
The correct way is to use System.IO.Path.GetTempPath()
as in the accepted answer.
System.IO.Path.GetTempPath()
.
GetEnvironmentVariable("TEMP")
and GetTempPath()
. GetTempPath()
checks first for "TMP" variable then "TEMP" and finally "USERPROFILE". If don't find any of those its returns path to Windows folder. It also guarantee that it returns correct path but it's not guarantee that the path exists.
GetTempPath
relies on your environment variables anyway, if you read the kernel documentation, so as user Logman points out there is no reason not to use GetEnvironmentVariable
... they both have the same weakness.
I have this same requirement - we want to put logs in a specific root directory that should exist within the environment.
public static readonly string DefaultLogFilePath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile);
If I want to combine this with a sub-directory, I should be able to use Path.Combine( ... )
.
The GetFolderPath
method has an overload for special folder options which allows you to control whether the specified path be created or simply verified.
Success story sharing
TEMP
environment variable would be set in two places: for the user itself, and for the local machine. If it's not set for the user, then the one for the local machine would be used, and that's always set in a default installation. Therefore the search usually stops on the second step. In testing, ifTMP
,TEMP
andUSERPROFILE
are all unset, it actually does fall back to%SystemRoot%
(C:\Windows\
).