Python Script Creates Directories In /tmp/, Taking Up System Space - linux

Question

I am running a script that acts as a server, allows two clients to connect to it, and for one specific client to send a message to the server, the server modifies it, then sends it to the other client.
This appears to work, as the receiving client acknowledges that the input was received and is valid. This is a script that I intend to run continuously.
However, a big issue is that my /tmp/ directory is filling up with directories named _M... (The ellipses representing a random string), that contains python modules (such as cryptography, which, as far as I'm aware, I'm not using), and timezone information (quite literally every timezone that python supports). It seems to be creating them very frequently, but I can't identify what in the process exactly is doing this.
I have created a working cleanup bash script that removes files older than 5 minutes from the directory every 5 minutes, however, I cannot guarantee that when I am duplicating this process for other devices, that the directories will have the same name formatting. Rather than create a unique bash script for each process that I create, I'd rather be able to clean up the directories from within the python script, or even better, to prevent the directories from being created at all.
The problem is, I'm not certain of how this is accomplished, and I do not see anything on SO regarding what is creating these directories, nor how to delete them.
The following is my script
import time, socket, os, sys, re, select
IP = '192.168.109.8'
PORT = [3000, 3001]
PID = str(os.getpid())
PIDFILE = "/path/to/pidfile.pid"
client_counter = 0
sockets_list = []
def runCheck():
if os.path.isfile(PIDFILE):
return False
else:
with open(PIDFILE, 'w') as pidfile:
pidfile.write(PID)
return True
def openSockets():
for i in PORT:
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
s.bind((IP, i))
s.listen(1)
sockets_list.append(s)
def receiveMessage(client_socket):
try:
message = client_socket.recv(2048).decode('utf-8')
if not message:
return False
message = str(message)
return message
except:
return False
def fixString(local_string):
#processes
return local_string
def main():
try:
openSockets()
clients = {}
print(f'Listening for connections on {IP}:{PORT[0]} and {PORT[1]}...')
client_count = 0
while True:
read_sockets, _, exception_sockets = select.select(sockets_list, [], sockets_list)
for notified_socket in read_sockets:
if notified_socket == sockets_list[0] or notified_socket == sockets_list[1]:
client_socket, client_address = sockets_list[client_count].accept()
client_count = (client_count + 1) % 2
sockets_list.append(client_socket)
clients[client_socket] = client_socket
print('Accepted new connection from: {}'.format(*client_address))
else:
message = receiveMessage(notified_socket)
if message is False:
continue
message = fixString(message)
for client_socket in clients:
if client_socket != notified_socket:
if message != "N/A":
client_socket.send(bytes(message, "utf-8"))
for notified_socket in exception_sockets:
sockets_list.remove(notified_socket)
del clients[notified_socket]
time.sleep(1)
except socket.timeout:
for i in sockets_list:
i.close()
os.remove(PIDFILE)
sys.exit()
except Exception as e:
for i in sockets_list:
i.close()
err_details = str('Error in line {}'.format(sys.exc_info()[-1].tb_lineno), type(e).__name__, e)
os.remove(PIDFILE)
print("Exception: {}".format(err_details))
sys.exit()
if __name__ == "__main__":
if runCheck():
main()
else:
pass
How might I set it up so that the python script will delete the directories it creates in the /tmp/ directory, or better, to not create them in the first place? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

As it would turn out, it is PyInstaller that was generating these files. In the documentation, it states that pyinstaller generates this _MEI directory when creating the executable in single-file mode, and it is supposed to delete it as well, but for some reason it didn't.