posix man page for mktemp

MKTEMP(P)						     POSIX Programmer's Manual							 MKTEMP(P)

NAME
       mktemp - make a unique filename (LEGACY)

SYNOPSIS
       #include <stdlib.h>

       char *mktemp(char *template);

DESCRIPTION
       The  mktemp() function shall replace the contents of the string pointed to by template by a unique filename and return template. The appli-
       cation shall initialize template to be a filename with six trailing 'X' s; mktemp() shall replace each 'X' with	a  single  byte  character
       from the portable filename character set.

RETURN VALUE
       The mktemp() function shall return the pointer template.  If a unique name cannot be created, template shall point to a null string.

ERRORS
       No errors are defined.

       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES
   Generating a Filename
       The  following example replaces the contents of the "template" string with a 10-character filename beginning with the characters "file" and
       returns a pointer to the "template" string that contains the new filename.

	      #include <stdlib.h>
	      ...
	      char *template = "/tmp/fileXXXXXX";
	      char *ptr;

	      ptr = mktemp(template);

APPLICATION USAGE
       Between the time a pathname is created and the file opened, it is possible for some other process to create a file with the same name.  The
       mkstemp() function avoids this problem and is preferred over this function.

RATIONALE
       None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       This function may be withdrawn in a future version.

SEE ALSO
       mkstemp() , tmpfile() , tmpnam() , the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <stdlib.h>

COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technol-
       ogy -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
       Electrical  and	Electronics  Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE
       and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can  be  obtained
       online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

IEEE
/The Open Group						       2003								 MKTEMP(P)