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 since 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 |
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).COLOPHON
This page is part of release 4.06 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 https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.