[GRASS-dev] Re: [GRASS GIS] #520: r.terraflow/iostream does not respect STREAM_DIR option

[GRASS GIS]

#520: r.terraflow/iostream does not respect STREAM_DIR option
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  Reporter:  mmetz   |       Owner:  grass-dev at lists.osgeo.org
      Type:  defect  |      Status:  new                      
  Priority:  major   |   Milestone:  6.4.0                    
 Component:  Raster  |     Version:  svn-develbranch6         
Resolution:          |    Keywords:  r.terraflow, tmp         
  Platform:  All     |         Cpu:  All                      
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Comment (by mmetz):

 Replying to [comment:19 hamish]:
 > Replying to [comment:18 mmetz]:
 >
 > > The default answer of /var/tmp or another system TEMP folder
 > > is IMHO not a good idea because of lack of space. Why not
 > > leaving it blank, if no answer is given, use the GRASS temp
 > > directory? That directory should always exist and I guess there
 > > is most of the time enough space.
 >
 > this has been discussed before, check the archives. ISTR that the
 Terraflow team (Andrew? Laura?) explained why they used that a long time
 ago (I now forget exact reason),

 Picking a directory whose contents are deleted automatically if I remember
 right, which would be the case for $MAPSET/.tmp/$MACHINE.

 Whatever directory is used as default in r.terraflow, it should at least
 exist on all supported platforms.

 > Note that these temp files may be >2gig

 I get regularly >20GB, having to work on somewhat larger datasets.
 Thinking about Doug's datasets, it would go way above 100GB.

 > (use the memory= option to lower those needs), and they may be
 potentially useful(?) for inspection/archive/debugging/reuse later, so
 keeping them completely hidden may not be desired.

 These files are deleted upon successful completion of the module using the
 iostream lib, nothing left to inspect. They are probably only useful for
 the iostream lib developers for debugging. Same for the segment lib,
 intermediate files are probably only useful for developers working on the
 segment lib. I don't see a reason why files created by the iostream
 library should be treated differently to files created by the segment
 library, or vice versa, when it comes to their storage location.

 This discussion is now moving away from r.terraflow towards where to store
 large temporary files, maybe this ticket can be closed and the discussion
 be continued somewhere else if needed?

 Markus M

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Ticket URL: <http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/520#comment:20>
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