Skip to main content
Log inGet free account

Temporary File Management

Understand Pantheon's default temporary path and learn how to debug .tmp file errors.

Discuss in Slack
Edit this page on GitHub Report an issue with this doc

This section provides information on how to use and debug the default temporary path, .tmp.

Exports

This doc uses Terminus commands. Before you begin, set the variables $site and $env in your terminal session to match your site name and the correct environment:

export env=dev

Default Temporary Path

WordPress

You can get the Pantheon-configured temporary path for WordPress on the Pantheon Systems WordPress Github.

Drupal

We don't recommend changing the temporary settings path for Drupal. Changing the configuration allows temporary files to be shared across application containers, but heavily impacts performance.

Add the code below to your settings.php file to get the appropriate configuration for Drupal sites.

/**
 * Drupal
 * Define appropriate location for tmp directory
 */
if (isset($_ENV['PANTHEON_ENVIRONMENT'])) {
  if (isset($_SERVER['PRESSFLOW_SETTINGS'])) { 
    // It's necessary to unset the injected PRESSFLOW_SETTINGS to override the values.
    $pressflow_settings = json_decode($_SERVER['PRESSFLOW_SETTINGS'], TRUE); 
    unset($pressflow_settings['conf']['file_temporary_path']); 
    unset($pressflow_settings['conf']['file_directory_temp']); 
    $_SERVER['PRESSFLOW_SETTINGS'] = json_encode($pressflow_settings); 
  } 
  $conf['file_temporary_path'] = $_SERVER['HOME'] .'/tmp';
  $conf['file_directory_temp'] = $_SERVER['HOME'] .'/tmp';
}

Fix Unsupported Temporary Path

Errors caused by an unsupported temporary path typically surface as permission errors for .tmp files and can be replicated on any environment.

You must correct an unsupported temporary path set by a plugin or theme in the wp-config.php file.

  1. Replace SOME_TMP_SETTING with the conflicting plugin or theme option. For example:

    if (isset($_ENV['PANTHEON_ENVIRONMENT'])) {
  define('SOME_TMP_SETTING', $_SERVER['HOME'] . '/tmp');
}

  2. Run wp config getin Terminus to verify the setting:

    terminus wp $site.$env -- config get SOME_TMP_SETTING

The output for this command should look similar to the following Contact Form 7 example:

config get wpcf7 uploads tmp dir default

Multiple Application Containers

Errors caused by this scenario occur on production environments (Test or Live) and typically reference some .tmp file as not found and could not be copied. These errors cannot be replicated on development environments (Dev or Multidev) because those environments use a single application container.

Sites on the Performance Medium plan and above have multiple application containers. The platform routes requests across available application containers based on their load to help sites perform at scale.

The default temporary path ($_SERVER['HOME'] . '/tmp') is not synchronized across application containers which causes operations that expect this path to persist will fail.

Considerations

It's uncommon for a plugin, module, or theme to use the temporary path in a way that results in such errors. We suggest reporting the issue to the author and replacing the conflicting plugin, module, or theme whenever possible until a fix is released.

Be aware that temporary files are not cleaned up automatically in the following configuration, which can result in highly populated directories.

Persistent Temporary Path Workaround

Warning

There's generally no need for temporary files to persist across application containers. You can use a different plugin or module to avoid a performance hit that accompanies the workaround below.

You must configure a temporary path that uses a private subdirectory of Pantheon's networked filesystem in the wp-config.php file.

  1. Verify that you have the private and tmp directories. These directories do not exist by default. You must create the folders via SFTP if you have not done so already. We do not recommend using a public path because core treats the temporary path as non-web-accessible by default.

  2. Replace SOME_TMP_SETTING with the conflicting plugin or theme option:

    if (isset($_ENV['PANTHEON_ENVIRONMENT'])) {
  define('SOME_TMP_SETTING', '/wp-content/uploads/private/tmp');
}

  3. Run wp config get in Terminus to verify the setting:

    terminus wp $site.$env -- config get SOME_TMP_SETTING

The output for this command should look similar to the following Contact Form 7 example:

config get wpcf7 uploads tmp dir filesystem

More Resources