NetBSD/lib/libc/stdio/mktemp.3

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.\"     @(#)mktemp.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
.\"
.Dd July 28, 1998
.Dt MKTEMP 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm mktemp ,
.Nm mkstemp ,
.Nm mkdtemp
.Nd make unique temporary file or directory name
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <stdlib.h>
.Ft char *
.Fn mktemp "char *template"
.Ft int
.Fn mkstemp "char *template"
.Ft char *
.Fn mkdtemp "char *template"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn mktemp
function
takes the given file name template and overwrites a portion of it
to create a file name.
This file name is unique and suitable for use
by the application.
The template may be any file name with some number of
.Ql X Ns s
appended
to it, for example
.Pa /tmp/temp.XXXX .
The trailing
.Ql X Ns s
are replaced with the current process number and/or a
unique letter combination.
The number of unique file names
.Fn mktemp
can return depends on the number of
.Ql X Ns s
provided; six
.Ql X Ns s
will
result in
.Fn mktemp
testing roughly 26 ** 6 combinations.
.Pp
The
.Fn mkstemp
function
makes the same replacement to the template and creates the template file,
mode 0600, returning a file descriptor opened for reading and writing.
This avoids the race between testing for a file's existence and opening it
for use.
.Pp
The
.Fn mkdtemp
function
is similar to
.Fn mkstemp ,
but it creates a mode 0700 directory instead and returns the path.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
The
.Fn mktemp
and
.Fn mkdtemp
functions
return a pointer to the template on success and
.Dv NULL
on failure.
The
.Fn mkstemp
function
returns \-1 if no suitable file could be created.
If either call fails an error code is placed in the global variable
.Va errno .
.Sh ERRORS
The
.Fn mktemp ,
.Fn mkstemp
and
.Fn mkdtemp
functions
may set
.Va errno
to one of the following values:
.Bl -tag -width Er
.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
The pathname portion of the template is not an existing directory.
.El
.Pp
The
.Fn mktemp ,
.Fn mkstemp
and
.Fn mkdtemp
functions
may also set
.Va errno
to any value specified by the
.Xr stat 2
function.
.Pp
The
.Fn mkstemp
function
may also set
.Va errno
to any value specified by the
.Xr open 2
function.
.Pp
The
.Fn mkdtemp
function
may also set
.Va errno
to any value specified by the
.Xr mkdir 2
function.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr chmod 2 ,
.Xr getpid 2 ,
.Xr open 2 ,
.Xr stat 2
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Fn mktemp
function appeared in
.At v7 .
.Pp
The
.Fn mkstemp
function appeared in
.Bx 4.4 .
.Pp
The
.Fn mkdtemp
function appeared in
.Nx 1.4 .
.Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
The use of
.Fn mktemp
should generally be avoided, as a hostile process can exploit a race
condition in the time between the generation of a temporary filename by
.Fn mktemp
and the invoker's use of the temporary name.
A link-time warning will be issued advising the use of
.Fn mkstemp
or
.Fn mkdtemp
instead.