Temporary data

General information about temporary files

CLC Workbenches write temporary files to disk during many analyses. Depending on the data set, these files can take up a lot of disk space. By default, these files are written to the standard location for temporary files on the system. If space there is limited, a different location can be specified.

Important: Performance is heavily dependent on constant, fast access to temporary files. Thus, the location designated for temporary files should be on an internal drive on the system the Workbench is installed on. Locations accessed over a network connection or locations on an external drive are not appropriate for this purpose.

Configuring a non-default location for temporary files

Add the following setting to the vmoptions file for the Workbench: 

	-Djava.io.tmpdir=</path-to-temp>

Replace </path-to-temp> with the absolute path to the new location.

The location of the vmoptions file depends on the operating system:

Windows and Linux
The file is located directly under the installation area of the Workbench. For the CLC Genomics Workbench, the filename is clcgenomicswb.vmoptions. For the CLC Main Workbench, it is clcmainwb.vmoptions.

macOS
The file is located in the application bundle and is called vmoptions.txt.

To find this file, navigate to the Workbench application in a Finder window. Right-click on the application, or click on it while holding the Ctrl key down (Ctrl + click), and choose "Show Package Contents" from the menu that appears. The file is within the Contents folder.

Note: In version 25 and earlier release lines, updating the location for temporary files involved configuring a setting in a property file called path.properties, located in the settings folder under the Workbench installation directory. From version 26, this setting has no effect.