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MKTEMP

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
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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.

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#mktem-d'-d, --directoryX'tty: link'

create a directory, not a file

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#mktem-u'-u, --dry-runX'tty: link'

do not create anything; merely print a name (unsafe)

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#mktem-q'-q, --quietX'tty: link'

suppress diagnostics about file/dir-creation failure

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#mktem-suffix'--suffix=SUFFX'tty: link'

append SUFF to TEMPLATE; SUFF must not contain a slash. This option is implied if TEMPLATE does not end in X

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#mktem-p'-p DIR, --tmpdir[=,DIR]X'tty: link'/

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

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#mktem-t'-tX'tty: link'

interpret TEMPLATE as a single file name component, relative to a directory: $TMPDIR, if set; else the directory specified via -p; else ,/tmp/ [deprecated]

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/mktemp#mktem-help'--helpX'tty: link'

display this help and exit

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/mktemp#mktem-version'--versionX'tty: link'

output version information and exit

 

AUTHOR

Written by Jim Meyering and Eric Blake.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>  

SEE ALSO

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

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

Packaged by Gentoo (9.10 (p0))
Copyright © 2026 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.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

AUTHOR

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO