Временные папки и каталоги в операционных системах

In computing, a temporary folder or temporary directory is a directory used to hold temporary files. Many operating systems and some software automatically delete the contents of this directory at bootup or at regular intervals, leaving the directory itself intact. For security reasons, it is best for each user to have their own temporary directory, since there has been a history of security vulnerabilities with temporary files due to programs incorrect file permissions or race conditions. A standard procedure for system administration is to reduce the amount of storage space used (typically, on a disk drive) by removing temporary files. In multi user systems, this can potentially remove active files, disrupting users' activities. To avoid this, some space reclaiming procedures remove only files which are inactive or "old" those which have not been read or modified in several days.

In Unix, the /tmp directory will often be a separate disk partition. In systems with magnetic hard disk drives, performance (overall system IOPS) will increase if disk head movements from regular disk I/O are separated from the access to the temporary directory. Increasingly, memory based solutions for the temporary directory or folder are being used, such as "RAM disks" set up in random access memory or the shared memory device in Linux. A Flash based solid state drive is less suitable as a temporary storage device for reading and writing due to the asymmetric read/write duration and due to wear. (See wear leveling.)

In MS DOS and Microsoft Windows, the temporary directory is set by the environment variable or Using the Window API, one can find the path to the temporary directory using the function, or one can obtain a path to a uniquely named temporary file using the function. Originally, the default was , then In the Windows XP era, the temporary directory was set per user as , although still user relocatable. For Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10 the temp location has moved again to within the AppData section of the User Profile, typically User Name In all versions of Windows, the Temp location can be accessed, for example, in Explorer, "Run " boxes and in an application's internal code by using or As with other environmental variables, or is synonymous with the full path. In Unix and Linux, the global temporary directories are and Web browsers periodically write data to the tmp directory during page views and downloads. Typically, is for persistent files (as it may be preserved over reboots), and is for more temporary files. See Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. In addition, a user can set their TMPDIR environment variable to point to a preferred directory (where the creation and modification of files is allowed). In macOS, a sandboxed application cannot use the standard Unix locations, but may use a user specific directory whose path is provided by the function
In OpenVMS, and in AmigaDOS are used.