R devel - Feb 2012 - tempdir() documentation or real bug ?

?tempdir says

By default, ?tmpdir? will be the directory given by ?tempdir()?.
     This will be a subdirectory of the temporary directory found by
     the following rule.  The environment variables ?TMPDIR?, ?TMP? and
     ?TEMP? are checked in turn and the first found which points to a
     writable directory is used: if none succeeds ?/tmp? is used.


Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work as advertised.
> Sys.setenv(TMPDIR='/home/brian/')
> Sys.getenv('TMPDIR')
[1] "/home/brian/"
> tempdir()
[1] "/tmp/RtmpfERGay"

> Sys.setenv(TEMP='/home/brian/')
> Sys.getenv('TEMP')
[1] "/home/brian/"
> tempdir()
[1] "/tmp/RtmpfERGay"

> Sys.setenv(TMP='/home/brian/')
> Sys.getenv('TMP')
[1] "/home/brian/"
> tempdir()
[1] "/tmp/RtmpfERGay"


Our /tmp/ directory is not very large, so I'd like to create tempdir()'s
in someplace that has space.

Regards,

   - Brian

-- 
Brian G. Peterson
http://braverock.com/brian/
Ph: 773-459-4973
IM: bgpbraverock

On Feb 21, 2012, at 2:20 PM, Brian G. Peterson wrote:
> ?tempdir says
> 
> By default, ?tmpdir? will be the directory given by ?tempdir()?.
>     This will be a subdirectory of the temporary directory found by
>     the following rule.  The environment variables ?TMPDIR?, ?TMP? and
>     ?TEMP? are checked in turn and the first found which points to a
>     writable directory is used: if none succeeds ?/tmp? is used.
> 
> 
> Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work as advertised.
> 
It does - you are just setting the environment variable too late - the temporary
directory is determined at R startup:

$ TMPDIR=/Users/urbanek R --slave -e 'print(tempdir())'
[1] "/Users/urbanek/RtmpDee89D"

Cheers,
Simon


>> Sys.setenv(TMPDIR='/home/brian/')
>> Sys.getenv('TMPDIR')
> [1] "/home/brian/"
>> tempdir()
> [1] "/tmp/RtmpfERGay"
> 
> 
>> Sys.setenv(TEMP='/home/brian/')
>> Sys.getenv('TEMP')
> [1] "/home/brian/"
>> tempdir()
> [1] "/tmp/RtmpfERGay"
> 
> 
>> Sys.setenv(TMP='/home/brian/')
>> Sys.getenv('TMP')
> [1] "/home/brian/"
>> tempdir()
> [1] "/tmp/RtmpfERGay"
> 
> 
> Our /tmp/ directory is not very large, so I'd like to create
tempdir()'s
> in someplace that has space.
> 
> Regards,
> 
>   - Brian
> 
> -- 
> Brian G. Peterson
> http://braverock.com/brian/
> Ph: 773-459-4973
> IM: bgpbraverock
> 
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