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MKTEMP(1) General Commands Manual MKTEMP(1) NAME mktemp -- make temporary file name (unique) SYNOPSIS mktemp [-d] [-p tmpdir] [-q] [-t prefix] [-u] template ... mktemp [-d] [-p tmpdir] [-q] [-u] -t prefix DESCRIPTION The mktemp utility takes each of the given file name templates and over- writes a portion of it to create a file name. This file name is unique and suitable for use by the application. The template may be any file name with some number of `Xs' appended to it, for example /tmp/temp.XXXXXXXXXX. The trailing `Xs' are replaced with the current process number and/or a unique letter combination. The number of unique file names mktemp can re- turn depends on the number of `Xs' provided; six `Xs' will result in mktemp selecting 1 of 56800235584 (62 ** 6) possible file names. If mktemp can successfully generate a unique file name, the file is created with mode 0600 (unless the -u flag is given) and the filename is printed to standard output. If the -t prefix option is given, mktemp will generate a template string based on the prefix and the TMPDIR environment variable if set. If the -p option is set, then the given tmpdir will be used if the TMPDIR environment variable is not set. Finally, /tmp will be used if neither TMPDIR or -p are set and used. Care should be taken to ensure that it is appropriate to use an environment variable potentially supplied by the user. If no arguments are passed or if only the -d flag is passed mktemp behaves as if -t tmp was supplied. Any number of temporary files may be created in a single invocation, in- cluding one based on the internal template resulting from the -t flag. The mktemp utility is provided to allow shell scripts to safely use tempo- rary files. Traditionally, many shell scripts take the name of the program with the pid as a suffix and use that as a temporary file name. This kind of naming scheme is predictable and the race condition it creates is easy for an attacker to win. A safer, though still inferior, approach is to make a temporary directory using the same naming scheme. While this does allow one to guarantee that a temporary file will not be subverted, it still allows a simple denial of service attack. For these reasons it is suggested that mktemp be used instead. OPTIONS The available options are as follows: -d, --directory Make a directory instead of a file. -p tmpdir, --tmpdir[=tmpdir] Use tmpdir for the -t flag if the TMPDIR environment variable is not set. Additionally, any provided template arguments will be in- terpreted relative to the path specified as tmpdir. If tmpdir is either empty or omitted, then the TMPDIR environment variable will be used. -q, --quiet Fail silently if an error occurs. This is useful if a script does not want error output to go to standard error. -t prefix Generate a template (using the supplied prefix and TMPDIR if set) to create a filename template. -u, --dry-run Operate in "unsafe" mode. The temp file will be unlinked before mktemp exits. This is slightly better than mktemp(3) but still in- troduces a race condition. Use of this option is not encouraged. ENVIRONMENT TMPDIR The directory in which to store temporary files. Refer to envi- ron(7). EXIT STATUS The mktemp utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. EXAMPLES The following sh(1) fragment illustrates a simple use of mktemp where the script should quit if it cannot get a safe temporary file. tempfoo=`basename $0` TMPFILE=`mktemp /tmp/${tempfoo}.XXXXXXXXXX` || exit 1 echo "program output" >> $TMPFILE To allow the use of TMPDIR: tempfoo=`basename $0` TMPFILE=`mktemp -t ${tempfoo}` || exit 1 echo "program output" >> $TMPFILE In this case, we want the script to catch the error itself. tempfoo=`basename $0` TMPFILE=`mktemp -q /tmp/${tempfoo}.XXXXXXXXXX` if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "$0: Can't create temp file, exiting..." exit 1 fi SEE ALSO mkdtemp(3), mkstemp(3), mktemp(3), environ(7) HISTORY A mktemp utility appeared in OpenBSD 2.1. This implementation was written independently based on the OpenBSD man page, and first appeared in FreeBSD 2.2.7. This man page is taken from OpenBSD. FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly September 27, 2025 MKTEMP(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | ENVIRONMENT | EXIT STATUS | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | HISTORY
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