How do I clear my temp directory in the simulator?

[Duncan C]

I've started caching graphics that my app downloads off the net to my app's temp directory using NSTemporaryDirectory().

I need to be able to scrub my temp directory clean to test initialization.

However, nothing I do clears out the temp directory. I can delete my app from the simulator's springboard; I can use the "reset content and settings" command, I can stand on my head, but the files in temp remain. What's going on here?

Also, when I go and look in ~Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/User/Applications, I can see my app's directory, including it's temp directory. However, the tmp directory appears empty. What's up with that? Are the files tagged as invisible?

I don't remember how to specify paths that include spaces in terminal, so I can't look in tmp there.

Help!


Duncan

[tkilmer]

For spaces in the terminal, surround with "".

cd Desktop/"My Folder"/images

[Duncan C]

Originally Posted by tkilmer

For spaces in the terminal, surround with "".

cd Desktop/"My Folder"/images

I found a reference that helped me with this.

I can also escape spaces and other single special characters with a backslash, so your example would be


cd Desktop/My\ Folder/images

Another REALLY cool trick is that you can type a command, then drag a file or folder onto the command line in terminal. The terminal app will put the path to that file folder right in-line. Very helpful.

[Duncan C]

I found my app's tmp directory on the simulator. To find it, I used to locate command. To use locate, I first had to build a locate database for my Mac. To do THAT, I issued the following command in the terminal:

sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb

Be aware that that command builds a locate database that any user on your Mac can use to see any file, even files that are normally not accessible to other users.

Once you've done that, you can use the locate command to locate a file that you know should be in your tmp directory. My app created a file I new should be there, so I used that filename.

The result I got was the following path:

/private/var/folders/f7/f7MhxBVPFt4q1lU9r0pfjU+++TI/-Tmp-/

The "f7MhxBVPFt4q1lU9r0pfjU+++TI" part of that path is, I think, an encoded version of the UUID (unique ID) for the application.


Does anybody know if I would cause any problems in the simulator if I used the terminal to delete all the files in that temp directory? There are a few files that I did not create, like: xcodeDocAccess.

Thanks for any help

[PhoneyDeveloper]

I have some code that deletes everything in the app temp folder. It causes problems if I run it on the simulator. On the sim the temp folder is shared among other apps and deleting some Xcode files that are in there did cause some problems with Xcode, although not extremely bad problems.

I run the temp folder deleting code only on the device. I don't delete the folder itself, only the contents.

What you could do is make sure to add a folder inside the temp folder with a unique name and only put your temp files inside that. Then delete this folder only when you need to.

[Glibnobin]

On a similar note, how do I clear the temp directory on the device?
I have a UIwebView leak. The only way to stop the crashing seems to be to reboot the iPhone.
I don't understand the difference that happens when the iPhone is rebooted vs. have the program quit.

Is there a way to clear ALL the cache? I've tried setting
[[NSURLCache sharedURLCache] setMemoryCapacity: 0];
[[NSURLCache sharedURLCache] setDiskCapacity:0];
and
NSURLCache *sharedCache = [NSURLCache sharedURLCache];
[sharedCache removeAllCachedResponses];

What does a reboot do that I can't seem too?

[Glibnobin]

hi Phoney, What's that code that clears the temp folder on the device.

[Vortec4800]

Originally Posted by Glibnobin

hi Phoney, What's that code that clears the temp folder on the device.

Did anybody ever figure out when the temp directory clears on the device? Will a reboot clear the temp directory?

[Duncan C]

Originally Posted by Vortec4800

Did anybody ever figure out when the temp directory clears on the device? Will a reboot clear the temp directory?

Yes, a restart clears the temp directory.

[bordashell]

You can get the tmp directory name on your mac by using this in your code:

- (void)cacheDirectory {
	
	NSString *tempPath = NSTemporaryDirectory();
	
	NSLog(@"Temp Value = %@", items);
}

Call the method from wherever you want.

This will return the tmp folder name, then in finder do (cmd-shift-G) and paste the response you got from the console window.

[bordashell]

The following will clear the TMP directory used by the Simulator.

NSString *tempPath = NSTemporaryDirectory();
NSArray *dirContents = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] directoryContentsAtPath:tempPath];
NSArray *onlyJPGs = [dirContents filteredArrayUsingPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"self ENDSWITH '.jpg'"]];

NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];

if (onlyJPGs) {	
	for (int i = 0; i < [onlyJPGs count]; i++) {
	NSLog(@"Directory Count: %i", [onlyJPGs count]);
	NSString *contentsOnly = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@%@", tempPath, [onlyJPGs objectAtIndex:i]];
	[fileManager removeItemAtPath:contentsOnly error:nil];
}

The above code clears only JPGs from the directory, so if you want to clear anything else then amend it.