NAME

mktemp - create a temporary file or directory

SYNOPSIS

mktemp [OPTION]... [TEMPLATE]

DESCRIPTION

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

AUTHOR

Written by Jim Meyering and Eric Blake.

REPORTING BUGS

GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

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.

SEE ALSO

mkstemp(3), mkdtemp(3), mktemp(3)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/mktemp>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) mktemp invocation'