ColdFusion GetTempDirectory() Stops Working
Posted December 20, 2007 at 10:56 AM
I just went and removed the usage of GetTempDirectory() in one of my applications because every now and then, ColdFusion's GetTempDirectory() starts returning an empty string. It's almost as if there is some error being thrown by the machine and, instead of letting that error bubble up to the web application, ColdFusion catches it and just returns an empty string.
Restarting the server fixes the issue, but certainly, that is not a viable option on our production machine that host as many sites as ours (I think some of our clients just look for reasons to call up and yell ;)).
Has anyone else ever come across this? Is there anything that can be done to prevent this other than just removing the use of ColdFusion's GetTempDirectory()? Does anyone feel that using GetTempDirectory() should be considered less than a best practice?
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Reader Comments
Funny... I thought I was crazy one day when I hit a similar problem. I didn't get an empty string, but it returned null and thus I was getting null pointer exceptions. Then I checked the docs and it turns out this is known behavior. I did indeed stop using the function.
Good luck Ben.
Posted by Marc Esher on Dec 20, 2007 at 11:34 AM
@Marc,
I posted this problem back in May to the House of Fusion mailing list and didn't get any replies, so I just assumed that I was the only one :) Then, it just happened again this morning. I couldn't find anything in Google; I can't believe I didn't see the note in the live docs. Is it actually part of the docs? Or is it just in the comments?
Posted by Ben Nadel on Dec 20, 2007 at 11:46 AM
I don't understand why someone would use the gettempdirectory() over just creating an application variable and assigning it a directory path. What benefits do you get by using it?
Posted by tony petruzzi on Dec 20, 2007 at 11:56 AM
What version of ColdFusion and what platform are you guys running on? I don't believe I've ever seen this error occur, but maybe it would explain some "random" NPEs I've seen.
Also, I looked in the livedocs for 6.1 and 7 and didn't see any mention of this. Where is this issue documented?
Posted by Leon Miller-Out on Dec 20, 2007 at 11:59 AM
Weird, Ben. I'm certain I read this in the docs... I didn't make it up myself! But I can't find it anywhere. Down the memory hole I suppose...
Posted by Marc Esher on Dec 20, 2007 at 12:03 PM
@Tony,
I think the only think you gain is not having to assign a variable in the Application :) I use it mostly for File Uploads when I need to upload a file, then rename it, then move it. The temp directory just seems like the kind of place that stuff should be done.
@Leon,
We are using ColdFusion 7.0.2 I think. Definitely some brand of MX7, which updater I am not exactly sure. However, it has happened on both the production and the Dev machines, but at different times. Both machines are running Windows Sever 2003 (I think, but I am not really involved in the server setup).
Posted by Ben Nadel on Dec 20, 2007 at 12:05 PM
@Ben, because our clients are on a shared box, we've always manually setup a temp directory for them as one global location is a "bad idea."
Posted by Todd Rafferty on Dec 20, 2007 at 1:26 PM
Ben,
We get the temp directory by calling this api on app server
ServletContext.getAttribute("javax.servlet.context.tempdir")
And we get this only the first time after which it is cached. So the only case you can get empty space is when the app server returns this value as empty String which looks little unlikely. Bid you change the temporary directory value in jrun.xml by any chance?
Is there any way I can replicate this?
Posted by Rupesh Kumar on Dec 20, 2007 at 1:54 PM
@Todd,
Good point - shared hosting or not.
@Rupesh,
I don't know how to reproduce it. It seems to only happen occasionally. From what you are saying, though, it seems like if it hiccups occasionally on startup, then it is in trouble till the next reboot.
I don't know anything about the jrun.xml file, but I do not believe we have messed with it.
Posted by Ben Nadel on Dec 20, 2007 at 2:22 PM
I'm having the same problem... debugging FCKEditor 2.5, which uses GetTempDirectory () to upload files. My local server is returning an empty string (right now!), and FCKEditor doesn't check for it. I like the suggestion of setting a temp directory that your application uses. I'm going to modify FCKEditor so that I can set a temp directory in the configuration that defaults to GetTempDirectory ().
Posted by JP on Dec 20, 2007 at 11:34 PM
I am also a fan of creating site-wide request variables for things like that!
Ben - I know you like recursion so if you really want to use the temp directory function, why not create your own UDF which basically keeps recursively calling the GetTempDirectory() method until it is not = '' or not = null
Not the most kosher approach, but it allows you to use the GetTempDirectory() directory.
:P
Posted by Paolo Broccardo on Dec 21, 2007 at 2:57 AM
Paolo, if GetTempDirectory() stops working until the server is restarted, calling the function recursively I would expect to crash the server, or at least timeout
Posted by duncan on Dec 21, 2007 at 4:25 AM
Does the empty string get returned everytime once it starts or just randomly on occasion?
Posted by Paolo Broccardo on Dec 21, 2007 at 4:33 AM
@Paolo,
Duncan is right - it's not randomly returning the empty string. It randomly starts returning the empty string, but once it does this, it keeps returning it until the server is restarted.
Posted by Ben Nadel on Dec 21, 2007 at 7:18 AM
In case you get into such state again where GetTempDirectry() is returning an empty String, can you let me know what is the output for this?
<cfoutput>#GetpageContext().getServletContext().getAttribute("javax.servlet.context.tempdir")#</cfoutput>
Probably that could give us some clue.
Posted by Rupesh Kumar on Dec 21, 2007 at 7:55 AM
@Rupesh,
I'm rockin' that scenario right now even for my site (I am on the same production server):
http://www.bennadel.com/test.cfm
I have also output the GetTempDirectory() which is empty.
Posted by Ben Nadel on Dec 21, 2007 at 7:59 AM
<cfoutput>#GetpageContext().getServletContext().getAttribute("javax.servlet.context.tempdir")#</cfoutput>
The output is empty.
Posted by JP on Dec 21, 2007 at 11:26 AM
Ben, interesting spam comments happening here - 'sohbet' repeating something you posted earlier, then JSC replying... both with links to spam domains.
Posted by duncan on Apr 18, 2008 at 3:57 AM
Yeah, this "sohbet" is a pain in the butt. I see he has been spamming other blogs (I get the blog comment subscriptions to). I think it is human though - it doesn't post with any kind of speed. Just got to the office now need to go clean out the spam.
Posted by Ben Nadel on Apr 18, 2008 at 7:14 AM
