tempfile

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

tempfile creates a temporary file in a safe manner. It uses mk‐ stemps(3) to choose the name and opens it with O_RDWR | O_CREAT | O_EXCL. The filename is printed on standard output. The directory in which to create the file might be searched for in this order: 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 ) is used when appropri‐ ate. d) Finally an implementation-defined directory (/tmp) may be used.

-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 success‐ fully.

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

Exclusive creation is not guaranteed when creating files on NFS parti‐ tions. tempfile cannot make temporary directories. tempfile is depre‐ cated; you should use mktemp(1) instead.

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

tempnam(3), mktemp(1)