| .\" Copyright (c) 1999 Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl) |
| .\" |
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| .TH TEMPNAM 3 2021-03-22 "" "Linux Programmer's Manual" |
| .SH NAME |
| tempnam \- create a name for a temporary file |
| .SH SYNOPSIS |
| .nf |
| .B #include <stdio.h> |
| .PP |
| .BI "char *tempnam(const char *" dir ", const char *" pfx ); |
| .fi |
| .PP |
| .RS -4 |
| Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see |
| .BR feature_test_macros (7)): |
| .RE |
| .PP |
| .BR tempnam (): |
| .nf |
| Since glibc 2.19: |
| _DEFAULT_SOURCE |
| Glibc 2.19 and earlier: |
| _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE |
| .fi |
| .SH DESCRIPTION |
| .I "Never use this function." |
| Use |
| .BR mkstemp (3) |
| or |
| .BR tmpfile (3) |
| instead. |
| .PP |
| The |
| .BR 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 |
| .BR tempnam () |
| checked. |
| The filename suffix of the pathname generated will start with |
| .I pfx |
| in case |
| .I 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). |
| .PP |
| Attempts to find an appropriate directory go through the following |
| steps: |
| .TP 3 |
| a) |
| In case the environment variable |
| .B TMPDIR |
| exists and |
| contains the name of an appropriate directory, that is used. |
| .TP |
| b) |
| Otherwise, if the |
| .I dir |
| argument is non-NULL and appropriate, it is used. |
| .TP |
| c) |
| Otherwise, |
| .I P_tmpdir |
| (as defined in |
| .IR <stdio.h> ) |
| is used when appropriate. |
| .TP |
| d) |
| Finally an implementation-defined directory may be used. |
| .PP |
| The string returned by |
| .BR tempnam () |
| is allocated using |
| .BR malloc (3) |
| and hence should be freed by |
| .BR free (3). |
| .SH RETURN VALUE |
| On success, the |
| .BR tempnam () |
| function returns a pointer to a unique temporary filename. |
| It returns NULL if a unique name cannot be generated, with |
| .I errno |
| set to indicate the error. |
| .SH ERRORS |
| .TP |
| .B ENOMEM |
| Allocation of storage failed. |
| .SH ATTRIBUTES |
| For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see |
| .BR attributes (7). |
| .ad l |
| .nh |
| .TS |
| allbox; |
| lbx lb lb |
| l l l. |
| Interface Attribute Value |
| T{ |
| .BR tempnam () |
| T} Thread safety MT-Safe env |
| .TE |
| .hy |
| .ad |
| .sp 1 |
| .SH CONFORMING TO |
| SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001. |
| POSIX.1-2008 marks |
| .BR tempnam () |
| as obsolete. |
| .SH NOTES |
| Although |
| .BR tempnam () |
| generates names that are difficult to guess, |
| it is nevertheless possible that between the time that |
| .BR tempnam () |
| returns a pathname, and the time that the program opens it, |
| another program might create that pathname using |
| .BR open (2), |
| or create it as a symbolic link. |
| This can lead to security holes. |
| To avoid such possibilities, use the |
| .BR open (2) |
| .B O_EXCL |
| flag to open the pathname. |
| Or better yet, use |
| .BR mkstemp (3) |
| or |
| .BR tmpfile (3). |
| .PP |
| SUSv2 does not mention the use of |
| .BR TMPDIR ; |
| glibc will use it only |
| when the program is not set-user-ID. |
| On SVr4, the directory used under \fBd)\fP is |
| .I /tmp |
| (and this is what glibc does). |
| .PP |
| Because it dynamically allocates memory used to return the pathname, |
| .BR tempnam () |
| is reentrant, and thus thread safe, unlike |
| .BR tmpnam (3). |
| .PP |
| The |
| .BR tempnam () |
| function generates a different string each time it is called, |
| up to |
| .B TMP_MAX |
| (defined in |
| .IR <stdio.h> ) |
| times. |
| If it is called more than |
| .B TMP_MAX |
| times, |
| the behavior is implementation defined. |
| .PP |
| .BR tempnam () |
| uses at most the first five bytes from |
| .IR pfx . |
| .PP |
| The glibc implementation of |
| .BR tempnam () |
| fails with the error |
| .B EEXIST |
| upon failure to find a unique name. |
| .SH BUGS |
| The precise meaning of "appropriate" is undefined; |
| it is unspecified how accessibility of a directory is determined. |
| .SH SEE ALSO |
| .BR mkstemp (3), |
| .BR mktemp (3), |
| .BR tmpfile (3), |
| .BR tmpnam (3) |