CRITICAL: Temp directory creation failures causing systematic output failures

[krystophny]

CRITICAL FILE I/O FAILURE: Temp directory creation is systematically failing, causing complete output operation failures.

Evidence of Systematic Failure

Error Pattern from Test Suite

ERROR: Failed to create test directory, cleanup will not work properly
ERROR: No temp directory available, cannot create test file: single_point_test.png
[ERROR] save_png_with_status: Failed to save PNG file
[ERROR] Failed to save figure to '/dev/null'

This pattern repeats throughout the ENTIRE test suite.

Affected Operations

File Creation: ALL output file operations failing
Test Suite: Cannot generate any test output files
Examples: Cannot create example output files
User Operations: Cannot save plots or figures

Failure Analysis

1. Directory Creation Failure

• Test directories cannot be created
• Temp directories are unavailable
• No fallback mechanisms implemented

2. File Output Cascade Failure

• PNG files cannot be saved
• Test files cannot be created
• All output operations falling back to /dev/null

3. Cleanup System Breakdown

• "cleanup will not work properly" indicates broken cleanup system
• No error recovery mechanisms
• No graceful degradation

Impact Assessment

SEVERITY: CRITICAL
User Impact: Cannot save ANY files
Test Coverage: 0% - All file output tests failing
Development Impact: Cannot verify file operations

Root Cause Hypotheses

1. Security Restrictions

• Temp directory creation disabled for security
• File system permissions overly restricted
• Directory creation operations blocked

2. System Configuration

• Temp directory environment variables unset
• File system permissions incorrect
• Directory creation utilities missing

3. Implementation Bugs

• Directory creation logic broken
• Error handling inadequate
• Path resolution failures

Verification Commands

# Check temp directory availability
echo $TMPDIR
echo $TMP
ls -la /tmp

# Test directory creation
mkdir /tmp/fortplot_test_dir
# Should succeed if permissions are correct

# Check current directory permissions
ls -la .
pwd

Required Immediate Actions

1. URGENT: Identify why temp directories cannot be created
2. URGENT: Implement working temp directory creation logic
3. IMMEDIATE: Add proper error handling and fallback mechanisms
4. CRITICAL: Test basic file I/O operations before deployment

Quality Gate Failure

This represents a fundamental failure of basic file I/O operations:

• No verification that files can be created
• No testing of temp directory systems
• No fallback mechanisms for I/O failures
• Complete breakdown of output capabilities

The library cannot perform its basic function of creating output files.