NAME
tempnam - create a name for a temporary file
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdio.h>
char *tempnam(const char *dir, const char *pfx);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
tempnam(): _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE
DESCRIPTION
The tempnam() function returns a pointer to a string that is a valid
filename, and such that a file with this name did not exist when
tempnam() checked. The filename suffix of the pathname generated will
start with pfx in case pfx is a non-NULL string of at most five bytes.
The directory prefix part of the pathname generated is required to be
"appropriate" (often that at least implies writable).
Attempts to find an appropriate directory go through the following
steps:
a) In case the environment variable TMPDIR exists and contains the name
of an appropriate directory, that is used.
b) Otherwise, if the dir argument is non-NULL and appropriate, it is
used.
c) Otherwise, P_tmpdir (as defined in <stdio.h>) is used when
appropriate.
d) Finally an implementation-defined directory may be used.
The string returned by tempnam() is allocated using malloc(3) and hence
should be freed by free(3).
RETURN VALUE
The tempnam() function returns a pointer to a unique temporary
filename, or NULL if a unique name cannot be generated.
ERRORS
ENOMEM Allocation of storage failed.
CONFORMING TO
SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001. POSIX.1-2008 marks tempnam() as obsolete.
NOTES
Although tempnam() generates names that are difficult to guess, it is
nevertheless possible that between the time that tempnam() returns a
pathname, and the time that the program opens it, another program might
create that pathname using open(2), or create it as a symbolic link.
This can lead to security holes. To avoid such possibilities, use the
open(2) O_EXCL flag to open the pathname. Or better yet, use
mkstemp(3) or tmpfile(3).
SUSv2 does not mention the use of TMPDIR; glibc will use it only when
the program is not set-user-ID. On SVr4, the directory used under d)
is /tmp (and this is what glibc does).
Because it dynamically allocates memory used to return the pathname,
tempnam() is reentrant, and thus thread safe, unlike tmpnam(3).
The tempnam() function generates a different string each time it is
called, up to TMP_MAX (defined in <stdio.h>) times. If it is called
more than TMP_MAX times, the behavior is implementation defined.
tempnam() uses at most the first five bytes from pfx.
The glibc implementation of tempnam() will fail with the error EEXIST
upon failure to find a unique name.
BUGS
The precise meaning of "appropriate" is undefined; it is unspecified
how accessibility of a directory is determined.
Never use this function. Use mkstemp(3) or tmpfile(3) instead.
SEE ALSO
mkstemp(3), mktemp(3), tmpfile(3), tmpnam(3)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.24 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
2008-08-06