Temporary Directory (-T)

Use Temporary Directory (-T) to specify a directory for temporary files.

Operating system and syntax	UNIX / Windows	-T dirname
Use with	Maximum value	Minimum value	Single-user default	Multi-user default
Client Session, Database Server	—	—	Working directory	Working directory

dirname

The directory in which to create temporary files.

If you do not use this parameter, OpenEdge creates temporary files in the current working directory.

The database broker passes the setting of -T to any servers it spawns. Manual servers and secondary brokers can specify their own -T or take the default; they do not inherit the setting from the primary broker. Remote Client connections can also specify a -T setting different from the server it is connecting to. Temporary space needed in the remote client is stored in its own -T directory. Temporary space needed in the server to process a request for a remote client is stored in the server’s -T directory.

On UNIX and in Windows, these filenames begin with one of the prefixes listed in the table below, and are followed by a number.

Note: Access the -T parameter using the SESSION:TEMP-DIR attribute. This attribute is read-only.

The following table shows descriptions of these prefixes:

Temp file	Usage
bcf	Internal file for tracking recid changes
dbg	Debugger listing file
dbi	Stores temporary tables
lbi	Local before-image (subtransaction undo)
lst	Temporary file used by the compile-listing feature of the COMPILE statement
obj	Temporary .r file
*.ped	Edit buffer contents. ped is NOT a prefix, it is a file extension.
rcd	Cache of r-code being run in a session
rpf	Raw data used by the Profiler
srt	Temporary sort space
trp	Stores Data Dictionary changes until they are saved

On UNIX, OpenEdge names these files uniquely for each user to avoid filename conflicts. Furthermore, OpenEdge stores these files as "unlinked" with no visible name in the UNIX file system, unless you use Save Temp Files (-t).

In Windows, if two or more users share the same working directory and there is a conflict of temporary files, the following message appears:

Unable to open or create filename, error 3