linux man page for tempfile

TEMPFILE(1)						      General Commands Manual						       TEMPFILE(1)

NAME
       tempfile - create a temporary file in a safe manner

SYNOPSIS
       tempfile  [-d  DIR]  [-p  STRING]  [-s  STRING]	[-m  MODE]  [-n  FILE] [--directory=DIR] [--prefix=STRING] [--suffix=STRING] [--mode=MODE]
       [--name=FILE] [--help] [--version]

DESCRIPTION
       tempfile creates a temporary file in a safe manner.  It uses tempnam(3) to choose the name and opens it with O_RDWR  |  O_CREAT	|  O_EXCL.
       The filename is printed on standard output. See tempnam(3) for the actual steps involved in directory selection.

       The directory in which to create the file might be searched for in this order (but refer to tempnam(3) for authoritative answers):

       a) In case the environment variable TMPDIR exists and contains the name of an appropriate directory, that is used.

       b) Otherwise, if the --directory argument is specified and appropriate, it is used.

       c) Otherwise, P_tmpdir (as defined in <stdio.h>) is used when appropriate.

       d) Finally an implementation-defined directory (/tmp) may be used.

OPTIONS
       -d, --directory DIR
	      Place the file in DIR.

       -m, --mode MODE
	      Open the file with MODE instead of 0600.

       -n, --name FILE
	      Use FILE for the name instead of tempnam(3).  The options -d, -p, and -s are ignored if this option is given.

       -p, --prefix STRING
	      Use up to five letters of STRING to generate the name.

       -s, --suffix STRING
	      Generate the file with STRING as the suffix.

       --help Print a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.

       --version
	      Print version information on standard output and exit successfully.

RETURN VALUES
       An exit status of 0 means the temporary file was created successfully.  Any other exit status indicates an error.

BUGS
       Exclusive creation is not guaranteed when creating files on NFS partitions.  tempfile is deprecated; you should use mktemp(1) instead.

EXAMPLE
	      #!/bin/sh
	      #[...]
	      t=$(tempfile) || exit
	      trap "rm -f -- '$t'" EXIT
	      #[...]
	      rm -f -- "$t"
	      trap - EXIT
	      exit

SEE ALSO
       tempnam(3), mktemp(1)

Debian								    30 May 2011 						       TEMPFILE(1)