MKTEMP(1)

💖 hey bestie, welcome to mktemp(1) 💖

okay so this is the General Commands Manual page for mktemp, section 1, and honestly? it's a little icon. it makes temporary files and directories for you so you don't have to hand-roll sketchy filename guessing. let's get into it, no cap 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

mktemp — Create a temporary file or directory. that's it, that's the whole job, and it does it flawlessly 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

mktemp [OPTION]... [TEMPLATE]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Create a temporary file or directory.

like, literally. you run it, it hands you a fresh name that nobody else is using, and it does the creating for you. main character behaviour, tbh 👑

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -d, --directory — Make a directory instead of a file. yes queen, a whole folder 🎀
• -u, --dry-run — do not create anything; merely print a name (unsafe). okay so listen: this one is giving chaos. it doesn't actually make the thing, it just whispers a name at you, and that name could absolutely get snatched by somebody else in the meantime. unsafe. fr fr 💀
• -q, --quiet — Fail silently if an error occurs. no drama, no output, it just… doesn't work and says nothing 🙈
• --suffix <SUFFIX> — append SUFFIX to TEMPLATE; SUFFIX must not contain a path separator. also, this option is implied if TEMPLATE does not end with X. so like, the X-ending thing is the whole vibe basically 💅
• -p <DIR> — short form of --tmpdir. the little nickname version 🫶
• --tmpdir[=<DIR>] — interpret TEMPLATE relative to DIR; if DIR is not specified, use $TMPDIR ($TMP on windows) if set, else /tmp. important deets: with this option, TEMPLATE must not be an absolute name; and unlike with -t, TEMPLATE may contain slashes, but mktemp creates only the final component. so it's flexible but it's not gonna go build a whole directory tree for you, bestie 🌈
• -t — Generate a template (using the supplied prefix and TMPDIR (TMP on windows) if set) to create a filename template [deprecated]. deprecated, babes. it still works but it's giving 👵 iykyk
• -h, --help — Print help. your little cheat sheet 🎀
• -V, --version — Print version. flex the number 💖
• [template] — the optional template argument, right there at the end of the list, exactly where they left it ✨

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🔥 VERSION 🔥

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

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🌟 EXAMPLES 🌟

Create an empty temporary file and print its absolute path:

mktemp

Use a custom directory if $TMPDIR is not set (the default is platform-dependent, but usually /tmp):

mktemp -p /path/to/temporary_directory

Use a custom path template (Xs are replaced with random alphanumeric characters):

mktemp /tmp/example.XXXXXXXX

Use a custom file name template:

mktemp -t example.XXXXXXXX

Create an empty temporary directory and print its absolute path:

mktemp -d

The examples are provided by the tldr-pages project <https://tldr.sh> under the CC BY 4.0 License. Please note that, as uutils is a work in progress, some examples might fail.

so yes, credit where credit is due: tldr-pages, CC BY 4.0, and a lil heads up that uutils is still cooking so some of these might not land perfectly yet 🍓

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and that's the page, bestie 💜 this one's dated 2026-09-25 and it's the MKTEMP(1) page from the General Commands Manual. go forth and make temp files responsibly, ily, bye 🧚✨