mktemp(1) User Commands mktemp(1)
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.
-d, --directory
create a directory, not a file
-u, --dry-run
do not create anything; merely print a name (unsafe)
-q, --quiet
suppress diagnostics about file/dir-creation failure
--suffix=SUFF
append SUFF to TEMPLATE; SUFF must not contain a slash. This
option is implied if TEMPLATE does not end in X
-p DIR, --tmpdir[=DIR]
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
-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]
--help display this help and exit
--version
output version information and exit
AUTHOR
Written by Jim Meyering and Eric Blake.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.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/>
COPYRIGHT
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.
SEE ALSO
mktemp(1)
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/mktemp>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) mktemp invocation'
GNU coreutils 9.10 March 2026 mktemp(1)
coreutils 9.10 - Generated Thu Apr 2 15:04:49 CDT 2026