[BUG] Installing Plots.jl still leaves files behind

[giordano]

Details

Why this is still an issue in v1.40.8 which was released 7 months after #4870 was merged?

Originally posted by @giordano in #4869 (comment)

Backends

Irrelevant

Versions

Plots.jl version: v1.40.8
Backend version (]st -m <backend(s)>): irrelevant
Output of versioninfo(): irrelevant

[t-bltg]

Could you precise which files are left behind in which context ?

The way you're using tempname(), by not using the name as is but appending an extension, causes the cleanup of the file to never happen, and so repeatedly precompiling the package causes lots of files to pile up, especially on shared systems which are reboot infrequently.

We are using tempname() here together with mktempdir with the default cleanup = true option set:
scratch_dir = mktempdir() ... fn = joinpath(scratch_dir, tempname()), so AFAIK, scratch_dir is deleted upon exit, hence no files are left behind ?

[t-bltg]

I see, we probably miss tempname(scratch_dir) instead.

[giordano]

Could you precise which files are left behind in which context ?

When I install Plots.jl and it has to be precompiled, two files with temporary base names and extension png are still left in /tmp, which is the issue described in #4869: attaching an extension to tempname() makes it so the file is never cleaned up automatically by Julia. To reproduce it: precompile Plots.jl and observe that there are leftovers in tempdir.

This issue is particularly annoying on shared systems which are rebooted infrequently and so the temporary files only keep accumulating.

[t-bltg]

Fixed by #5023, also tested locally by inspecting /tmp.

The claimed fix implemented in #4870 was wrong.

Please try the new version 1.40.9 and report ?

[giordano]

I confirm this seems to be fixed now, thanks!