TEMPFILE

NAME

tempfile - create a temporary file in a safe manner

SYNOPSYS

tempfile [-d DIR] [-p STRING] [-s STRING] [-m MODE] [-n FILE] [--directory=DIR] [--prefix=STRING] [--suffix=STRING] [--mode=MODE] [--name=FILE] [--help] [--version]

DESCRIPTION

tempfile creates a temporary file in a safe manner. It uses tempnam(3) to choose the name and opens it with O_RDWR | O_CREAT | O_EXCL. The filename is printed on standard output.

The directory to place the file is searched for in the following order:

a): The directory specified by the environment variable TMPDIR, if it is writable.
b): The directory specified by the --directory argument, if given.
c): The directory /tmp.

Debian packages using tempfile in maintainer scripts must depend on debianutils >= 1.6.

OPTIONS

-d, --directory DIR: Place the file in DIR.
-p, --prefix STRING: Use up to five letters of STRING to generate the name.
-s, --suffix STRING: Generate the file with STRING as the suffix.
-m, --mode MODE: Open the file with MODE instead of 0600.
-n, --name FILE: Use FILE for the name instead of tempnam(3). The options -d, -p, and -s are ignored if this option is given.
--help: Print a usage message on standard output and exit succesfully.
--version: Print version information on standard output and exist succesfully.

RETURN VALUES

An exit status of 0 means the temporary file was created succesfully. Any other exit status indicates an error.

BUGS

Exclusive creation is not guaranteed when creating files on NFS partitions.