tmpnam, tempnam[name for a temporary file]

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tmpnam, tempnam
[name for a temporary file]

SYNOPSIS
#include <stdio.h>
char *tmpnam(char *s);
char *tempnam(char *dir, char *pfx);
char *_tmpnam_r(void *reent, char *s);
char *_tempnam_r(void *reent, char *dir, char *pfx);

DESCRIPTION
Use either of these functions to generate a name for a temporary file. The generated name is guaranteed to avoid collision with other files (for up to TMP_MAX calls of either function).

tmpnam generates file names with the value of P_tmpdir (defined in stdio.h) as the leading directory component of the path.

You can use the tmpnam argument sto specify a suitable area of memory for the generated filename; otherwise, you can call tmpnam(NULL) to use an internal static buffer.

tempnam allows you more control over the generated filename: you can use the argument, dir, to specify the path to a directory for temporary files, and you can use the argument, pfx, to specify a prefix for the base filename.

If dir is NULL, tempnam will attempt instead to use the value of environment variable, TMPDIR; if there is no such value, tempnam uses the value of P_tmpdir (defined in stdio.h).

If you don’t need any particular prefix to the basename of temporary files, you can pass NULL as the pfx argument to tempnam.

_tmpnam_r and _tempnam_r are reentrant versions of tmpnam and tempnam respectively. The extra argument, reent, is a pointer to a reentrancy structure.

DANGER!!!
The generated filenames are suitable for temporary files, but do not in themselves make files temporary. Files with these names must still be explicitly removed when you no longer want them.

If you supply your own data area s for tmpnam, you must ensure that it has room for at least L_tmpnam elements of type char.

RETURNS
Both tmpnam and tempnam return a pointer to the newly generated file-name.

COMPLIANCE
ANSI C requires tmpnam, but does not specify the use of P_tmpdir. The System V Interface Definition (Issue 2) requires both tmpnam and tempnam.

Supporting OS subroutines required: close, fstat, getpid, isatty, lseek, open, read, sbrk, write.

The global pointer, environ, is also required.