MKSTEMP
Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (3)
Updated: 2001-12-23
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NAME
mkstemp - create a unique temporary file
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>
int mkstemp(char *template);
DESCRIPTION
The mkstemp() function generates a unique temporary file name
from template. The last six characters of template must
be XXXXXX and these are replaced with a string that makes the
filename unique. The file is then created with mode read/write and
permissions 0666 (glibc 2.0.6 and earlier), 0600 (glibc 2.0.7 and later).
Since it will be modified,
template
must not be a string constant, but should be declared as a character array.
The file is opened with the O_EXCL flag, guaranteeing that when
mkstemp
returns successfully we are the only user.
RETURN VALUE
On success, the mkstemp() function returns the file descriptor
of the temporary file.
On error, -1 is returned, and
errno
is set appropriately.
ERRORS
- EEXIST
-
Could not create a unique temporary filename.
Now the contents of template are undefined.
- EINVAL
-
The last six characters of template were not XXXXXX.
Now template is unchanged.
NOTES
The old behaviour (creating a file with mode 0666) may be
a security risk, especially since other Unix flavours use 0600,
and somebody might overlook this detail when porting programs.
More generally, the POSIX specification does not say anything
about file modes, so the application should make sure its umask
is set appropriately before calling
mkstemp.
CONFORMING TO
BSD 4.3, POSIX 1003.1-2001
NOTE
The prototype is in
<unistd.h>
for libc4, libc5, glibc1; glibc2 follows the Single Unix Specification
and has the prototype in
<stdlib.h>.
SEE ALSO
mkdtemp(3),
mktemp(3),
tempnam(3),
tmpfile(3),
tmpnam(3)
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- RETURN VALUE
-
- ERRORS
-
- NOTES
-
- CONFORMING TO
-
- NOTE
-
- SEE ALSO
-
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