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Status Not under consideration
Workspace IBM i
Categories IFS (Integrated File System) and Servers
Created by Guest
Created on Oct 30, 2025

RELATED IDEAS

create a temp per process ifs dir QTEMP like in use

For security and auto cleanup, would be useful to have a particular named directory in IFS called for example /QTEMP or /jobtmp etc. that is local to the process (and PASE process) and behaves just like the QTEMP library.

Or something autogenerated, or istantiated upon API call that will give a unique dir id.

When a process dies, the whole content vanishes.

This virtual dir then you can - in future - use it to support to mount "virtual remote" filesystems, like the now ubiquitous SFTP. Want to support SFTP in a super efficient way and revolutionary way? Just mount the remote server under /QTEMP/serverid and then let RPG use regular POSIX calls or the new SQL services, it is a "per process" mount view. Want to support S3 storage? same, if it has a filesystem like view and structure.

The uses are numerous.

And really, sometimes, after months, the current /tmp can become a real mess, lots of leftovers, a lot of security problem possibilities also due to lot of logs left there...

Idea priority High
  • Guest
    May 12, 2026
    The IBM i file systems team does not believe that we can provide the desired solution as requested. Anything that is added to the IFS namespace is visible to other processes on the system. There is no concept of per-process directory contents in the IFS.

    IBM i does have temporary User-Defined File Systems (https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/i/7.6.0?topic=udfss-temporary-user-defined-file-systems) that can provide the true temporary object semantics that many *NIX scripts expect from the /tmp directory. A temporary UDFS can be mounted over an IFS path, and that path can be used to hold temporary objects. That UDFS can be unmounted and re-mounted occasionally to purge orphaned objects and reduce clutter.
    Reply
  • Admin
    Carmelita Ruvalcaba
    Mar 31, 2026

    The CAAC has reviewed this IBM Idea and recommends that IBM not implement this request.

    The POSIX pattern for this is mktemp

    Background: The COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CAAC has a key role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual IBM Ideas on the broader IBM i community and has therefore reviewed your Idea.

    For more information about CAAC, see www.common.org/caac

    Carmelita Ruvalcaba - CAAC Program Manager

    Reply
  • Guest
    Mar 27, 2026

    The pattern for this in *nix is mktemp which is much more generally usable than the QTEMP pattern.


    Jack Woehr

    IBM Champion & CAAC member

    Reply
  • Guest
    Dec 8, 2025

    are we on *nix or are we better than that?

    Reply
  • Guest
    Nov 20, 2025

    This would deviate from generally accepted standards for *nix environments.

    Reply

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