CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++cqt
chacham15
chacham15

Reputation: 14251

Can I queue a delete on a file?

I have data in memory that represents an image. I want to open the image in the default program to open images. Therefore, I create a temporary file, write the data to it, and then open the file with the default application. Currently, I am using Qt to do the last step via QDesktopServices::openUrl ( const QUrl & url ). The problem is that I now have this random file lying around on disk. Is there a way that I can queue a delete on the file so that after the app closes it gets deleted?

As far as OS is concerned, I'd prefer a os independent solution, but I am guessing that none probably exists. Therefore, if you could link to/post how to do it in linux/osx/windows, that would be really helpful.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 130

Answers (1)

Tim Pierce
Tim Pierce

Reputation: 5664

On a POSIX system (any Unix or Linux machine), there's a nice trick you can take advantage of: you can remove the directory entry for the file with unlink after opening the file. As long as you keep an open filehandle on the file, it will not be removed, but once you've closed it, the filesystem will automatically reclaim the storage.

Upvotes: 1

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