NAME
   mktemp - make temporary file name (unique)

SYNOPSIS
   mktemp [-d] [-q] [-u] template

DESCRIPTION
   The mktemp utility takes the given file name template and overwrites a
   portion of it to create a file name. This file name is unique and suit-
   able for use by the application. The template may be any file name with
   at least 6 of 'Xs' appended to it, for example /tmp/temp.XXXXXX. The
   trailing 'Xs' are replaced with the current process number and/or a
   unique letter combination.  The number of unique file names mktemp can
   return depends on the number of 'Xs' provided; six 'Xs' will result in
   mktemp testing roughly 26 ** 6 combinations.

   If mktemp can successfully generate a unique file name, the file is cre-
   ated with mode 0600 (unless the -u flag is given) and the filename is
   printed to standard output.

OPTIONS
   The available options are as follows:

   -d    Make a directory instead of a file.

   -q    Fail silently if an error occurs. This is useful if a script
    does not want error output to go to standard error.

   -u    Operate in ``unsafe'' mode. The temp file will be unlinked
    before mktemp exits. This is slightly better than mktemp(3) but
    still introduces a race condition.  Use of this option is not
    encouraged.

RETURN VALUES
   The mktemp utility exits with a value of 0 on success, and 1 on failure.

EXAMPLES
   The following sh(1) fragment illustrates a simple use of mktemp where the
   script should quit if it cannot get a safe temporary file.

   TMPFILE=`mktemp /tmp/$0.XXXXXX` || exit 1
   echo "program output" >> $TMPFILE

   In this case, we want the script to catch the error itself.

   TMPFILE=`mktemp -q /tmp/$0.XXXXXX`
   if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "$0: Can't create temp file, exiting..."
    exit 1
   fi

   Note that one can also check to see that $TMPFILE is zero length instead
   of checking $?. This would allow the check to be done later one in the
   script (since $? would get clobbered by the next shell command).

SEE ALSO
   mkstemp(3), mktemp(3)

HISTORY
   The mktemp utility appeared in OpenBSD.