openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Windows: resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDir uses C:\tmp instead of proper temp directory [1 participants]

Description

On Windows, resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDir() resolves to C:\tmp\openclaw instead of the proper Windows temp directory (C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp\openclaw).

The gateway log line confirms this:

[gateway] log file: \tmp\openclaw\openclaw-2026-04-04.log

Root Cause

In src/infra/tmp-openclaw-dir.ts, the function first checks if POSIX_OPENCLAW_TMP_DIR (/tmp/openclaw) is accessible:

const existingPreferredState = resolveDirState(POSIX_OPENCLAW_TMP_DIR);
if (existingPreferredState === "available") return POSIX_OPENCLAW_TMP_DIR;

On Windows, Node.js resolves /tmp to C:\tmp (relative to the current drive root). If C:\tmp happens to exist (which it does on many Windows machines — Git, MSYS2, and other Unix-compat tools create it), then:

1. fs.accessSync('/tmp', W_OK | X_OK) succeeds (because C:\tmp exists and is writable)
2. fs.mkdirSync('/tmp/openclaw') creates C:\tmp\openclaw
3. The function returns /tmp/openclaw — a POSIX path that Node resolves to C:\tmp\openclaw

This bypasses the intended fallback path which correctly uses os.tmpdir() to get C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp.

Impact

• Log files written to wrong location: C:\tmp\openclaw\openclaw-*.log instead of %TEMP%\openclaw\
• TTS temp files accumulate in C:\tmp\openclaw\ instead of proper temp
• Users looking in %TEMP%\openclaw\ find nothing — only the lock file exists there (written by a different code path)
• Split state: lock file is at %TEMP%\openclaw\gateway.*.lock, logs are at C:\tmp\openclaw\ — two different locations for the same logical directory

Expected Behavior

On Windows, the function should skip the POSIX /tmp/openclaw path entirely and go straight to the os.tmpdir() fallback, producing C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp\openclaw.

Suggested Fix

Add a platform check before trying the POSIX path:

if (process.platform !== 'win32') {
    const existingPreferredState = resolveDirState(POSIX_OPENCLAW_TMP_DIR);
    if (existingPreferredState === "available") return POSIX_OPENCLAW_TMP_DIR;
    // ... rest of POSIX /tmp logic
}
return ensureTrustedFallbackDir();

Environment

• Windows 11 Pro (10.0.26200)
• Node.js 22.x
• OpenClaw 2026.4.2
• C:\tmp exists on the system (created by Git for Windows)