# Different /tmp location for OOD?

**URL:** <https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/different-tmp-location-for-ood/4078>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [February 27, 2025, 1:37pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/different-tmp-location-for-ood/4078 "2025-02-27T13:37:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LittlestFluffy](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/littlestfluffy/32/2629_2.png) [@LittlestFluffy](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/LittlestFluffy)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 1:37pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/different-tmp-location-for-ood/4078/1 "2025-02-27T13:37:50Z")

</div>

As our OOD instance is running on a shared system, where people also at times run pip install. We noticed that the /tmp directory is full with data, causing an error for OOD because it’s not able to write its required temporary files.

Is there a way to define an alternative path of OOD/Phusion Passenger?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 3:12pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/different-tmp-location-for-ood/4078/2 "2025-02-27T15:12:55Z")

</div>

Hi and welcome!

Many programs respond to the `TMPDIR` environment variable. A quick google search indicates that `pip` will respond to this. Seems like you can set it to something in `/etc/environment` or `/etc/profile.d/some_new_file.sh` or similar if you want to change it for your python users.

For setting it in OOD - it may be hard to set it for nginx/passenger as something like $HOME may not evaluate correctly depending on when it’s evaluated.

That said - you can set it for the dashboard and other apps specifically. You can set the TMPDIR environment variable in `/etc/ood/config/apps/dashboard/env` to something like

```shell
TMPDIR="$HOME/tmp"

```

This to get to write to the users HOME drive.

That said - taking a peak at this similar discussion, [Customize passenger environment for apps - #15 by jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/customize-passenger-environment-for-apps/2465/15)

I found that there maybe passenger settings you can tweak as well.

[https://www.phusionpassenger.com/library/config/nginx/reference/#passenger\_instance\_registry\_dir](https://www.phusionpassenger.com/library/config/nginx/reference/#passenger_instance_registry_dir)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/osc/original/2X/b/bae70bd0ed39a3ae769c2108155f4cb3e9da8385.png) [@system](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2025, 3:13pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/different-tmp-location-for-ood/4078/3 "2025-08-26T15:13:41Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.