Python: differences between tempfile.mkdtemp and tempfile.TemporaryDirectory

You are correct in that the only real difference is that TemporaryDirectory will delete itself when it is done. It will let you do something like:

with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as dir:
   do_stuff_with(dir)

when you leave the scope of the with, the temporary directory will be deleted. With mkdtemp, you would need to do that manually.

From the documentation of tempfile.TemporaryDirectory():

This function creates a temporary directory using mkdtemp() (the supplied arguments are passed directly to the underlying function). The resulting object can be used as a context manager (see With Statement Context Managers). On completion of the context (or destruction of the temporary directory object), the newly created temporary directory and all its contents are removed from the filesystem.