SQLITE_IOERR_GETTEMPPATHERRORTier 2 — Caution⚠️ MEDIUM confidenceI/O error finding a temporary directory
🔴 Production Risk Error
Medium — queries requiring temp storage will fail.
What this means
SQLITE_IOERR_GETTEMPPATH (6410) is returned when SQLite cannot determine a writable temporary directory for creating temporary files used during large sorts and intermediate results.
Why it happens
- 1TMPDIR / TEMP / TMP environment variables point to a non-existent or non-writable directory.
- 2All candidate temporary directories are full or inaccessible.
- 3Chroot or sandboxed environment with no accessible temp path.
How to reproduce
Queries requiring temporary storage (large sorts, CREATE INDEX, etc.) when no temp dir is available.
import os, sqlite3
os.environ['TMPDIR'] = '/nonexistent'
conn = sqlite3.connect(':memory:')
# Large sort requiring temp file may raise SQLITE_IOERR_GETTEMPPATHFix 1
Why this works
Set TMPDIR / TEMP to a writable directory with sufficient space.
Fix 2
Why this works
Use PRAGMA temp_store = MEMORY to avoid temp files for small result sets.
Fix 3
Why this works
Increase disk space on the temp filesystem.
Sources
📚 Official docs: https://www.sqlite.org/rescode.html#ioerr_gettemppath
🔧 Source ref: sqlite3.h — SQLITE_IOERR_GETTEMPPATH = 6410
📖 Further reading: SQLite temp_store pragma
Confidence assessment
⚠️ MEDIUM confidence
Stable.
See also
🔗 Related errors
📄 Reference pages