File: make.info,  Node: Temporary Files,  Next: Options Summary,  Prev: Testing,  Up: Running

9.7 Temporary Files
===================

In some situations, 'make' will need to create its own temporary files.
These files must not be disturbed while 'make' is running, including all
recursively-invoked instances of 'make'.

   If the environment variable 'MAKE_TMPDIR' is set then all temporary
files created by 'make' will be placed there.

   If 'MAKE_TMPDIR' is not set, then the standard location for temporary
files for the current operating system will be used.  For POSIX systems
this will be the location set in the 'TMPDIR' environment variable, or
else the system's default location (e.g., '/tmp') is used.  On Windows,
first 'TMP' then 'TEMP' will be checked, then 'TMPDIR', and finally the
system default temporary file location will be used.

   Note that this directory must already exist or 'make' will fail:
'make' will not attempt to create it.

   These variables _cannot_ be set from within a makefile: GNU 'make'
must have access to this location before it begins reading the
makefiles.