From: Michael Schuerig <michael@...>
Date: 2010-09-14T19:00:22+09:00
Subject: Getting a unique filename?


I need to build a Zip-Archive with a unique name that is served by 
Apache using its X-SendFile mechanism.

Tempfile doesn't appear to be suitable in this case as it unlinks its 
managed file when the Tempfile object is finalized. In my current, wrong 
code, I'm using Tempfile and the file is not deleted prematurely, but I 
take this to be no more than luck.

There are two processes involved, the ruby process (Rails, actually) 
writing the file and apache delivering it. Ruby only passes the file's 
path to apache. The file's life has to be independent of the ruby 
process from then on (and I have to delete it externally).

I could (ab)use Tempfile to write code like this, but that doesn't 
strike me as very elegant

  tf = Tempfile.new(['archive-', '.zip'])
  tempname = tf.path
  tf.close!

Is there a nicer way?

Michael

-- 
Michael Schuerig
mailto:michael@schuerig.de
http://www.schuerig.de/michael/