How to serve file with cherrypy and delete the file from server?

I need to create a file on the server, serve it to the client, and I would prefer to delete the file from the server afterwards.

Here's what I'm currently trying:

def myaction():
    fs = facts.generatefacts(int(low),int(high),int(amount),op)
    filename = 'test.txt'
    FILE = open(filename,'w')
    FILE.writelines('my\nstuff\nhere')
    FILE.close()
    RETURN_FILE = open(filename,'r')
    return serve_fileobj(RETURN_FILE,disposition='attachment',
                         content_type='.txt',name=filename)

myaction.exposed = True

There are several things about this that I don't like. I wouldn't think that I would have to open the file twice, for example. I would expect that there is a way to write content directly to the response object, without ever creating a file object, but that isn't my question today.

The above code accomplishes what I want, but leaves a file behind. If I delete the file before returning the response, then (of course) the file isn't found.

Is there a way to remove this file as soon as it has been served?

I'm coming from the Java world, so I'm a bit disoriented, and any other suggestions to improve the above are appreciated.

Solution

1) You can move file to temporary folder and remove all files older 0.5 hours

2) You can try

result = serve_fileobj(RETURN_FILE,disposition='attachment',
                         content_type='.txt',name=filename)
os.unlink(filename)
return result

3) Try to use StringIO file object that can wrap string to look like a file.