Index: django/conf/global_settings.py
===================================================================
--- django/conf/global_settings.py	(revision 7322)
+++ django/conf/global_settings.py	(working copy)
@@ -287,7 +287,7 @@
 SESSION_SAVE_EVERY_REQUEST = False                      # Whether to save the session data on every request.
 SESSION_EXPIRE_AT_BROWSER_CLOSE = False                 # Whether sessions expire when a user closes his browser.
 SESSION_ENGINE = 'django.contrib.sessions.backends.db'  # The module to store session data
-SESSION_FILE_PATH = '/tmp/'                             # Directory to store session files if using the file session module
+SESSION_FILE_PATH = None                                # Directory to store session files if using the file session module. If set to None the backend will use a sensible default.
 
 #########
 # CACHE #
Index: django/contrib/sessions/backends/file.py
===================================================================
--- django/contrib/sessions/backends/file.py	(revision 7322)
+++ django/contrib/sessions/backends/file.py	(working copy)
@@ -9,7 +9,9 @@
     Implements a file based session store.
     """
     def __init__(self, session_key=None):
-        self.storage_path = getattr(settings, "SESSION_FILE_PATH", tempfile.gettempdir())
+        self.storage_path = getattr(settings, "SESSION_FILE_PATH", None)
+        if not self.storage_path:
+            self.storage_path = tempfile.gettempdir()
 
         # Make sure the storage path is valid.
         if not os.path.isdir(self.storage_path):
Index: docs/sessions.txt
===================================================================
--- docs/sessions.txt	(revision 7322)
+++ docs/sessions.txt	(working copy)
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@
 ``"django.contrib.sessions.backends.file"``.
 
 You might also want to set the ``SESSION_FILE_PATH`` setting (which
-defaults to ``/tmp``) to control where Django stores session files. Be
+defaults to ``tempfile.gettempdir()``, most likely  ``/tmp``) to control where Django stores session files. Be
 sure to check that your Web server has permissions to read and write to
 this location.