tempfile(1) [linux man page]

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)

TEMPNAM(3)						     Linux Programmer's Manual							TEMPNAM(3)

NAME

       tempnam - create a name for a temporary file

SYNOPSIS

       #include <stdio.h>

       char *tempnam(const char *dir, const char *pfx);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       tempnam(): _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

       The tempnam() function returns a pointer to a string that is a valid filename, and such that a file with this name did not exist when temp-
       nam() checked.  The filename suffix of the pathname generated will start with pfx in case pfx is a non-NULL string of at most  five  bytes.
       The directory prefix part of the pathname generated is required to be "appropriate" (often that at least implies writable).

       Attempts to find an appropriate directory go through the following steps:

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

       b) Otherwise, if the dir argument is non-NULL and appropriate, it is used.

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

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

       The string returned by tempnam() is allocated using malloc(3) and hence should be freed by free(3).

RETURN VALUE

       The tempnam() function returns a pointer to a unique temporary filename, or NULL if a unique name cannot be generated.

ERRORS

       ENOMEM Allocation of storage failed.

CONFORMING TO

       SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.  POSIX.1-2008 marks tempnam() as obsolete.

NOTES

       Although  tempnam() generates names that are difficult to guess, it is nevertheless possible that between the time that tempnam() returns a
       pathname, and the time that the program opens it, another program might create that pathname using open(2), or  create  it  as  a  symbolic
       link.  This can lead to security holes.	To avoid such possibilities, use the open(2) O_EXCL flag to open the pathname.	Or better yet, use
       mkstemp(3) or tmpfile(3).

       SUSv2 does not mention the use of TMPDIR; glibc will use it only when the program is not set-user-ID.  On SVr4, the directory used under d)
       is /tmp (and this is what glibc does).

       Because it dynamically allocates memory used to return the pathname, tempnam() is reentrant, and thus thread safe, unlike tmpnam(3).

       The  tempnam()  function  generates a different string each time it is called, up to TMP_MAX (defined in <stdio.h>) times.  If it is called
       more than TMP_MAX times, the behavior is implementation defined.

       tempnam() uses at most the first five bytes from pfx.

       The glibc implementation of tempnam() will fail with the error EEXIST upon failure to find a unique name.

BUGS

       The precise meaning of "appropriate" is undefined; it is unspecified how accessibility of a directory is determined.

       Never use this function.  Use mkstemp(3) or tmpfile(3) instead.

SEE ALSO

       mkstemp(3), mktemp(3), tmpfile(3), tmpnam(3)

COLOPHON

       This page is part of release 3.25 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs,  can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

								    2008-08-06								TEMPNAM(3)