NAME¶
tmpnam - create a name for a temporary file
SYNOPSIS¶
#include <stdio.h>
char *tmpnam(char *s);
DESCRIPTION¶
The
tmpnam() function returns a pointer to a string that is a valid
filename, and such that a file with this name did not exist at some point in
time, so that naive programmers may think it a suitable name for a temporary
file. If the argument
s is NULL this name is generated in an internal
static buffer and may be overwritten by the next call to
tmpnam(). If
s is not NULL, the name is copied to the character array (of length at
least
L_tmpnam) pointed at by
s and the value
s is
returned in case of success.
The path name that is created, has a directory prefix
P_tmpdir. (Both
L_tmpnam and
P_tmpdir are defined in
<stdio.h>,
just like the TMP_MAX mentioned below.)
RETURN VALUE¶
The
tmpnam() function returns a pointer to a unique temporary filename,
or NULL if a unique name cannot be generated.
ERRORS¶
No errors are defined.
NOTES¶
Portable applications that use threads cannot call
tmpnam() with NULL
parameter if either _POSIX_THREAD_SAFE_FUNCTIONS or _POSIX_THREADS is defined.
The
tmpnam() function generates a different string each time it is
called, up to TMP_MAX times. If it is called more than TMP_MAX times, the
behaviour is implementation defined.
BUGS¶
Never use this function. Use
mkstemp(3) instead.
SVID 2, POSIX, BSD 4.3, ISO 9899
SEE ALSO¶
mktemp(3),
mkstemp(3),
tempnam(3),
tmpfile(3)
