To expand on another answer, here is a fairly complete example which can cleanup the tmpdir even on exceptions:
import contextlib
import os
import shutil
import tempfile
@contextlib.contextmanager
def cd(newdir, cleanup=lambda: True):
prevdir = os.getcwd()
os.chdir(os.path.expanduser(newdir))
try:
yield
finally:
os.chdir(prevdir)
cleanup()
@contextlib.contextmanager
def tempdir():
dirpath = tempfile.mkdtemp()
def cleanup():
shutil.rmtree(dirpath)
with cd(dirpath, cleanup):
yield dirpath
def main():
with tempdir() as dirpath:
pass # do something here