mktemp(3) — Linux manual page

mktemp(3)               Library Functions Manual               mktemp(3)

NAME

       mktemp - make a unique temporary filename

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <stdlib.h>

       char *mktemp(char *template);

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

       mktemp():
           Since glibc 2.12:
               (_XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500) && ! (_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L)
                   || /* glibc >= 2.19: */ _DEFAULT_SOURCE
                   || /* glibc <= 2.19: */ _SVID_SOURCE || _BSD_SOURCE
           Before glibc 2.12:
               _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500

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 │
       └─────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

STANDARDS

       None.

HISTORY

       4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.  Removed in POSIX.1-2008.

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

       mktemp(1), mkdtemp(3), mkstemp(3), tempnam(3), tmpfile(3),
       tmpnam(3)

COLOPHON

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Linux man-pages 6.9.1          2024-05-02                      mktemp(3)

Pages that refer to this page: mktemp(1), mkdtemp(3), mkstemp(3), pmrecord(3), stdio(3), tempnam(3), tmpfile(3), tmpnam(3)

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