MKTEMP(1)

📦
version 9.10 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 MKTEMP(1) — the group chat edition 💖

okay so bestie, you know how the manual name is MKTEMP(1) and it lives in the User Commands section? yeah. that's us. that's the vibe. let's go 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

mktemp — create a temporary file or directory. literally its whole thing. icon behavior. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

mktemp [OPTION]... [TEMPLATE]

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

So the assignment is: make a temporary file or directory, safely, and print its name. that's it, that's the job, and she does it flawlessly every single time no cap 🫶

Your TEMPLATE has one non-negotiable rule: it must contain at least 3 consecutive X's in the last component. three. minimum. that's the price of admission, bestie 😤

If you don't hand over a TEMPLATE at all, she'll just use tmp.XXXXXXXXXX, and --tmpdir is implied. she's got you, don't stress 💜

Also, for the record: files get created u+rw, and directories get u+rwx, minus whatever your umask restrictions say. so like, the umask still gets a say in this. she's not above the umask. nobody is. 😭

✨ the flags, bestie ✨

  • -d, --directory — create a directory, not a file. plot twist but make it organized 🎀
  • -u, --dry-run — do not create anything at all, just print a name. sounds cute, and it is, but heads up: this is unsafe. not me being dramatic, the manpage literally says unsafe. so like. respect the red flag 🚩
  • -q, --quiet — suppress diagnostics about file/dir-creation failure. she'll just quietly not tell you. silence is golden, or whatever 😌
  • --suffix=SUFF — append SUFF to TEMPLATE; SUFF must not contain a slash. and fun fact: this option is implied if TEMPLATE doesn't end in X.
  • -p DIR, --tmpdir[=DIR] — interpret TEMPLATE relative to DIR; if DIR isn't specified, use $TMPDIR if it's set, else /tmp. With this option, TEMPLATE must not be an absolute name. and unlike with -t, TEMPLATE may contain slashes — but mktemp only creates the final component. yeah, only the last one. the rest is just vibes and hopes and dreams 🌈
  • -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] — she's an icon but she's retired, okay? still works, still listed, but like. deprecated 💀
  • --help — display this help and exit. the classic. 🥰
  • --version — output version information and exit. 🌟

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by Jim Meyering and Eric Blake. legends. absolute main characters. we thank them for their service 🫡💖

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

Found a bug? spill it, bestie:

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

Full documentation at <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/mktemp>

or available locally via:

info '(coreutils) mktemp invocation'
Packaging tea ☕: Packaged by Ubuntu (9.10-1ubuntu2) 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.

and that's the whole page, bestie 💜 this was GNU coreutils 9.10, from August 2026, filed under MKTEMP(1) — mwah, take care of her, and remember: three X's minimum, no absolute paths with -p, and -u is unsafe fr fr 😘✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from