MKTEMP
Updated: 2015-08-08
Index Return to Main Contents
NAME
mktemp - make a unique temporary filenameSYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h> char *mktemp(char *template);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
mktemp():
-
- Since glibc 2.12:
-
_BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE ||
(_XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 ||
_XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED) &&
!(_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 600) - Before glibc 2.12:
- _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 || _XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED
DESCRIPTION
Never use this function; see BUGS.The mktemp() function generates a unique temporary filename from template. The last six characters of template must be XXXXXX and these are replaced with a string that makes the filename unique. Since it will be modified, template must not be a string constant, but should be declared as a character array.
RETURN VALUE
The mktemp() function always returns template. If a unique name was created, the last six bytes of template will have been modified in such a way that the resulting name is unique (i.e., does not exist already) If a unique name could not be created, template is made an empty string, and errno is set to indicate the error.ERRORS
- EINVAL
- The last six characters of template were not XXXXXX.
ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).Interface | Attribute | Value |
mktemp() | Thread safety | MT-Safe |
CONFORMING TO
4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001. POSIX.1-2008 removes the specification of mktemp().BUGS
Never use mktemp(). Some implementations follow 4.3BSD and replace XXXXXX by the current process ID and a single letter, so that at most 26 different names can be returned. Since on the one hand the names are easy to guess, and on the other hand there is a race between testing whether the name exists and opening the file, every use of mktemp() is a security risk. The race is avoided by mkstemp(3) and mkdtemp(3).SEE ALSO
mkdtemp(3), mkstemp(3), tempnam(3), tmpfile(3), tmpnam(3)COLOPHON
This page is part of release 4.02 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Index
- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- RETURN VALUE
- ERRORS
- ATTRIBUTES
- CONFORMING TO
- BUGS
- SEE ALSO
- COLOPHON