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Annotation of src/usr.bin/mktemp/mktemp.1, Revision 1.2

1.2     ! millert     1: .\"    $OpenBSD: mktemp.1,v 1.1 1996/11/21 07:59:32 millert Exp $
1.1       millert     2: .\"
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                     34: .Dd "November 20, 1996"
                     35: .Dt MKTEMP 1
                     36: .Os
                     37: .Sh NAME
                     38: .Nm mktemp
                     39: .Nd make temporary file name (unique)
                     40: .Sh SYNOPSIS
                     41: .Nm mktemp
                     42: .Op Fl u
                     43: .Op Fl q
                     44: .Ar template
                     45: .Sh DESCRIPTION
                     46: The
                     47: .Nm mktemp
                     48: utility takes the given file name template and overwrites a
                     49: portion of it to create a file name.  This file name is unique
                     50: and suitable for use by the application.  The template may be
                     51: any file name with some number of
                     52: .Ql X Ns s
                     53: appended
                     54: to it, for example
                     55: .Pa /tmp/temp.XXXX .
                     56: The trailing
                     57: .Ql X Ns s
                     58: are replaced with the current process number and/or a
                     59: unique letter combination.
                     60: The number of unique file names
                     61: .Nm
                     62: can return depends on the number of
                     63: .Ql X Ns s
                     64: provided; six
                     65: .Ql X Ns s
                     66: will
                     67: result in
                     68: .Nm
                     69: testing roughly 26 ** 6 combinations.
                     70: .Pp
                     71: If
                     72: .Nm
                     73: can successfully generate a unique file name, the file
                     74: is created with mode 0600 (unless the
                     75: .Fl u
                     76: flag is given) and the filename is printed
                     77: to standard output.
                     78: .Sh OPTIONS
                     79: .Bl -tag -width indent
                     80: The available options are as follows:
                     81: .It Fl u
                     82: Operate in
                     83: .Dq unsafe
                     84: mode.  The temp file will be unlinked before
                     85: .Nm
                     86: exits.  This is slightly better than
                     87: .Fn mktemp 3
                     88: but still introduces a race condition.  Use of this
                     89: option is not encouraged.
                     90: .It Fl q
                     91: Fail silently if an error occurs.  This is useful if
                     92: a script does not want error output to go to standard error.
                     93: .Sh RETURN VALUES
                     94: The
                     95: .Nm
                     96: utility
                     97: exits with a value of 0 on success, and 1 on failure.
                     98: .Sh EXAMPLES
                     99: The following
                    100: .Xr sh 1
                    101: fragment illustrates a simple use of
                    102: .Nm
                    103: where the script should quit if it cannot get a safe
                    104: temporary file.
                    105: .Bd -literal -offset indent
                    106: TMPFILE=`mktemp /tmp/$0.XXXXXX` || exit 1
                    107: echo "program output" >> $TMPFILE
                    108: .Ed
                    109: .Pp
                    110: In this case, we want the script to catch the error itself.
                    111: .Bd -literal -offset indent
                    112: TMPFILE=`mktemp -s /tmp/$0.XXXXXX`
1.2     ! millert   113: if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
1.1       millert   114:        echo "$0: Can't create temp file, exiting..."
                    115:        exit 1
                    116: fi
                    117: .Ed
                    118: .Pp
                    119: Note that one can also check to see that $TMPFILE is
                    120: zero length instead of checking $?.  This would allow
                    121: the check to be done later one in the script (since
                    122: $? would get clobbered by the next shell command).
                    123: .Sh SEE ALSO
                    124: .Xr mkstemp 3 ,
                    125: .Xr mktemp 3
                    126: .Sh HISTORY
                    127: The
                    128: .Nm
                    129: utility appeared in
                    130: .Bx Open .