Create a temporary directory in PowerShell?

Question

PowerShell 5 introduces the New-TemporaryFile cmdlet, which is handy. How can I do the same thing but instead of a file create a directory? Is there a New-TemporaryDirectory cmdlet?

Answer 1

I think it can be done without looping by using a GUID for the directory name:

function New-TemporaryDirectory {     $parent = [System.IO.Path]::GetTempPath()     [string] $name = [System.Guid]::NewGuid()     New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path (Join-Path $parent $name) } 

Original Attempt With GetRandomFileName

Here's my port of this C# solution:

function New-TemporaryDirectory {     $parent = [System.IO.Path]::GetTempPath()     $name = [System.IO.Path]::GetRandomFileName()     New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path (Join-Path $parent $name) } 

Analysis Of Possibility Of Collision

How likely is it that GetRandomFileName will return a name that already exists in the temp folder?

• Filenames are returned in the form XXXXXXXX.XXX where X can be either a lowercase letter or digit.
• That gives us 36^11 combinations, which in bits is around 2^56
• Invoking the birthday paradox, we'd expect a collision once we got to around 2^28 items in the folder, which is about 360 million
• NTFS supports about 2^32 items in a folder, so it is possible to get a collision using GetRandomFileName

NewGuid on the other hand can be one of 2^122 possibilities, making collisions all but impossible.

Answer 2

I also love one-liners, and I'm begging for a downvote here. All I ask is that you put my own vague negative feelings about this into words.

New-TemporaryFile | %{ rm $_; mkdir $_ } 

Depending on the type of purist you are, you can do %{ mkdir $_-d }, leaving placeholder to avoid collisions.

And it's reasonable to stand on Join-Path $env:TEMP $(New-Guid) | %{ mkdir $_ } also.