mktemp - create a temporary file or directory
mktemp [OPTION]... [TEMPLATE]
Create a temporary file or directory, safely, and print its name.
TEMPLATE must contain at least 3 consecutive 'X's in last component. If
TEMPLATE is not specified, use tmp.XXXXXXXXXX, and --tmpdir is
implied. Files are created u+rw, and directories u+rwx, minus umask
restrictions.
- -d,
--directory
- create a directory, not a file
- -u, --dry-run
- do not create anything; merely print a name (unsafe)
- -q, --quiet
- suppress diagnostics about file/dir-creation failure
- --suffix=SUFF
- append SUFF to TEMPLATE; SUFF must not contain a slash. This option is
implied if TEMPLATE does not end in X
- -p DIR,
--tmpdir[=DIR]
- interpret TEMPLATE relative to DIR; if DIR is not specified, use $TMPDIR
if set, else /tmp. With this option, TEMPLATE must not be an
absolute name; unlike with -t, TEMPLATE may contain slashes, but
mktemp creates only the final component
- -t
- interpret TEMPLATE as a single file name component, relative to a
directory: $TMPDIR, if set; else the directory specified via -p;
else /tmp [deprecated]
- --help
- display this help and exit
- --version
- output version information and exit
Written by Jim Meyering and Eric Blake.
GNU coreutils online help:
<https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to
<https://translationproject.org/team/>
Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License
GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO
WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
mkstemp(3), mkdtemp(3), mktemp(3)
Full documentation
<https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/mktemp>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) mktemp invocation'