NAME

       mktemp - make a unique temporary file name

SYNOPSIS

       #include <stdlib.h>

       char *mktemp(char *template);

DESCRIPTION

       The  mktemp()  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.  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 returns NULL on error (template did not end in XXXXXX) and template otherwise.  If
       the call was successful, the last six bytes of template will have been modified in such a  way  that  the
       resulting  name  is  unique  (does  not exist already). If the call was unsuccessful, template is made an
       empty string.

ERRORS

       EINVAL The last six characters of template were not XXXXXX.

CONFORMING TO

       BSD 4.3. POSIX dictates tmpnam(3).

NOTE

       The prototype is in <unistd.h> for libc4, libc5, glibc1; glibc2 follows the Single Unix Specification and
       has the prototype in <stdlib.h>.

BUGS

       Never use mktemp(). Some implementations follow BSD 4.3 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).

SEE ALSO

       mkstemp(3), tempnam(3), tmpfile(3), tmpnam(3)

GNU                                               April 3, 1993                                        MKTEMP(3)