can I delete chm temp files without messing up my project?

[techwriter1995]

I have a huge project containing 33 folders and around 20,000 htm files. I build a chm file and there's a duplicate of every file in the chm temp folders. If I try to do a search on the entire project, it searches those folders too. I'm wondering if I can delete those temp files without screwing up my project. Thanks.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Are they in the help output folder (like \!SSL!\output_type\)? If so, they get wiped each time you generate the help anyway, so you could blow them away or move them someplace else if you wanted.

[techwriter1995]

No they are in the root.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Sorry, don’t work with CHMs, so I don’t know if that folder can be deleted.

[Captiv8r · Accepted solution]

Hi there

Anything with Temp in it is subject to clobbering. You should be fine.

I believe RoboHelp creates these prior to compiling the CHM. It *SHOULD* be cleaning them out once finished, so there may need to be some investigation that occurs as to why they are being left behind. Unless, at some point the process is failing.

Cheers... Rick

[KimberlyO]

That is interesting. I checked my folders and I don't have any sort of temp folder. I generate a .chm file as well, although I only have 280 .htm files.

However, I did just generate a new .chm to see what happened in my !SSL!/Microsoft_HTML_Help folder. While the .chm was generating, the !chm_tmp_folder_0 display. Once the .chm was completed, the temp folder went away.

Do you have your .chm output generated to your root directory? In RoboHelp, are you seeing "Compilation complete." in the Output View pod?  It almost makes me think that the compilation isn't complete. (Or that errors may have occurred.)

[KimberlyO]

"displayed"... I hate it when my mind goes faster than my fingers.

[techwriter1995]

Well now I'm wondering if I have a new problem. I built the chm file yesterday and I do NOT get a Compilation Complete message. However, when I check the chm file, all my changes are there. I'm going to take a closer look at the output window today and see if I can tell what is happening.