TMPNAM (3)
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
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.
CONFORMING TO
SVID 2, POSIX, BSD 4.3, ISO 9899
SEE ALSO
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