NAME
mktemp — make a name for a temporary file
SYNOPSIS
mktemp
[-c]
[-d
directory_name]
[-p
prefix]
DESCRIPTION
mktemp
makes a name that is suitable for use as the pathname
of a temporary file, and
writes that name to the standard output.
The name is chosen such that it does not
duplicate the name of an existing file.
If the
-c
option is specified,
a zero-length file is created with the generated name.
The name generated by
mktemp
is the concatenation of a directory name, a slash
(/),
the value of the
LOGNAME
environment variable truncated to
{NAME_MAX}
- 6 characters, and the process
ID
of the invoking process.
The directory name is chosen as follows:
- 1.
If the
-d
option is specified,
directory_name
is used.
- 2.
Otherwise, if the
TMPDIR
environment variable is set
and a string that would yield a unique name
can be obtained by using the value of that variable as a directory name,
this value is used.
- 3.
Otherwise, if a string that would yield a unique name
can be obtained using
/tmp
as the directory,
/tmp
is used.
- 4.
Otherwise,
.
(current directory) is used.
If the
-p
option is specified,
prefix
is used instead of the value of the
LOGNAME
environment variable for name generation.
RETURN VALUE
mktemp
returns zero on successful completion
and non-zero if syntax, file access,
or file creation errors were encountered
or a unique pathname could not be generated.
Printable version
