Jetty/Reference/Temporary Directories

Introduction

Jetty 7 and Jetty 8 are now EOL (End of Life)

THIS IS NOT THE DOCUMENTATION YOU ARE LOOKING FOR!!!!!






All development and stable releases are being performed with Jetty 9 and Jetty 10.






This wiki is now officially out of date and all content has been moved to the Jetty Documentation Hub

Direct Link to updated documentation: http://www.eclipse.org/jetty/documentation/current/temporary-directories.html

Jetty itself has no temporary directories, but you can assign a directory for each web application, into which the WAR is unpacked, JSPs compiled on-the-fly, etc.

The algorithm for determining a webapp's temporary directory location is as follows:

1. Try to use an explicit directory specifically for this webapp:
   • Iff webapp.getTempDirectory() is set, use it. Do NOT delete it on jvm exit.
   • Iff javax.servlet.context.tempdir context attribute is set for this webapp && exists && writeable, then use it. Do NOT delete on jvm exit.
2. Create a directory based on global settings. The new directory will be called "Jetty_"host""port"'"context""+virtualhost :
   • Iff $(jetty.home)/work exists create the directory there. Do NOT delete on jvm exit. Do NOT delete contents if dir already exists.
   • Iff WEB-INF/work exists create the directory there. Do NOT delete on jvm exit. Do NOT delete contents if dir already exists.
   • Else create dir in $(java.io.tmpdir). Set delete on jvm exit. Delete contents if dir already exists.

Be aware that a temporary directory will have its contents deleted when the webapp is stopped unless either

• It is called work.
• It pre-existed the deployment of the webapp.

Once a tempory directory has been allocated, a File instance for it is set and retrievable as the javax.servlet.context.tempdir attribute of the web application.