LIBTMPFILE(3)

💖 LIBTMPFILE(3) — aka the pm_tmpfile() glow-up 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the Netpbm sub...) function(3) page, straight out of the Library Functions Manual ✨ this one's short, sweet, and lowkey iconic, so let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

pm_tmpfile() — create a temporary unnamed file 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <netpbm/pm.h>

FILE *
pm_tmpfile(void);

like. that's it. that's the whole vibe. 💅

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🦋 EXAMPLE 🦋

okay so here's a lil baby example that literally does the most: it makes a temp file, writes "hello world" into it, then reads it right back and prints what it found. main character behavior fr fr ✨

#include <netpbm/pm.h>

FILE * myfileP;

myfile = pm_tmpfile();

fprintf(myfile, "hello world\n");

fseek(myfileP, 0, SEEK_SET);

fread(buffer, sizeof(buffer), 1, myfileP);

fprintf(STDOUT, "temp file contains '%s'\n", buffer);

fclose(myfileP);

(and yes bestie, we are printing it exactly as the page has it, typos and all — not my job to fix the lore 💀)

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so this library function is part of Netpbm(1) 🫶

pm_tmpfile() creates and opens an unnamed temporary file. it's basically the same thing as the standard C library tmpfile() function — same energy, same fit — except that it uses the TMPFILE environment variable to decide where to create the temporary file 👑

if TMPFILE is not set, or it's set to something unusable (e.g. too long 😭), then pm_tmpfile() falls back to the value of the standard C library symbol P_tmpdir, just like tmpfile() does. no cap, that's the fallback plan.

🚨 but here's the plot twist, and it's the good kind: unlike tmpfile(), pm_tmpfile() never returns NULL. if it fails, it issues a message to Standard Error and aborts the program, like most libnetpbm routines do. so like, it doesn't ghost you — it either shows up or it full-on ends the show 💀

if you need to refer to the temporary file by name, use pm_make_tmpfile() instead. that's the one for that job, bestie ✨

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🌈 HISTORY 🌈

pm_tmpfile() was introduced in Netpbm 10.20 (January 2004) 🎂 a true elder icon, we respect her.

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🎀 DOCUMENT SOURCE 🎀

this manual page was generated by the Netpbm tool 'makeman' from HTML source 📜 the master documentation lives at:

http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc/libtmpfile.html

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netpbm documentation · 22 July 2004 · Netpbm sub...) function(3) — ok that's the whole page bestie, you ate that, go forth and make ur unnamed temp files 💅💖✨🦋🌸🫶