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] [--pre‐
       fix=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 can‐
       not make temporary directories.  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                                     27 Jun 2012                                TEMPFILE(1)