create and use temporary directory in tox

Question

I am looking for a reliable method for generating and using temporary, disposable folders, as part of tox environment creation.

[testenv:var-test]
description = Try to store output of a shell command
tmpdir = mktemp -d
commands =
    echo {[testenv:var-test]tmpdir}
    # prints "mktemp -d" (command is not run)
    
    tmpdir = mktemp -d
    # ERROR: InvocationError for command could not find executable tmpdir

Answer 1

There may be better ways, but you certainly can call a bash script from within the commands section.

tox.ini

[testenv]
whitelist_externals = bash
commands =
    bash {toxinidir}/commands.sh

commands.sh

TEMP=`mktemp -d`
echo $TEMP

output of a tox run

❯ tox
python run-test-pre: PYTHONHASHSEED='562823002'
python run-test: commands[0] | bash /home/jugmac00/stackOverflow/commands.sh
/tmp/tmp.snc2T0Fa6W
_________________________________________________________ summary __________________________________________________________
  python: commands succeeded
  congratulations :)