Question:

It appears that dirhelper can delete files from NSTemporaryDirectory()
while an app is running. Is this a bug in
com.apple.bsd.dirhelper.plist, which specifies that dirhelper run
periodically?

Background:

I'm trying to track down a bug that a few users have reported but that
I can't reproduce. Console logs from these users indicate that files
that should be in a subdirectory of NSTemporaryDirectory() have been
deleted.

On Leopard, the command /usr/libexec/dirhelper is responsible for
cleaning out old files in /var/folders, which is a parent directory of
NSTemporaryDirectory().

According to /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.bsd.dirhelper.plist,
dirhelper is run at launch and AT REGULAR INTERVALS AFTER THAT to
remove files that are more than 3 days old.

        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
        <dict>
                <key>Hour</key>
                <integer>3</integer>
                <key>Minute</key>
                <integer>35</integer>
        </dict>
        <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
        <dict>
                <key>CLEAN_FILES_OLDER_THAN_DAYS</key>
                <string>3</string>
        </dict>

(Note: You can find the dirhelper source at
http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/10.5.6/system_cmds-433.4/dirhelper.tproj/)

If an app creates files in NSTemporaryDirectory() and the user leaves
the app running for more than 3 days (or unzips an archive containing
files with a modification date more than three days in the past), the
files will be deleted out from under the application ... won't they?

-Steve
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