Standard Module tempfile

tempfile temporaryfile name temporaryfile

This module generates temporary file names. It is not specific, but it may require some help on non- systems.

Note: the modules does not create temporary files, nor does it automatically remove them when the current process exits or dies.

The module defines a single user-callable function:

$\begin{funcdesc}{mktemp}{} Return a unique temporary filename. This is an absolu... ...ime the call is made. No two calls will return the same filename. \end{funcdesc}$

The module uses two global variables that tell it how to construct a temporary name. The caller may assign values to them; by default they are initialized at the first call to mktemp().

$\begin{datadesc}{tempdir} When set to a value other than \code{None}, this varia... ...her systems). No check is made to see whether its value is valid. \end{datadesc}$
TMPDIR

$\begin{datadesc}{template} When set to a value other than \code{None}, this vari... ...t process ID (on \UNIX{}), or \lq\lq \code{tmp}'' (all other systems). \end{datadesc}$

Warning: if a process uses mktemp(), then calls fork() and both parent and child continue to use mktemp(), the processes will generate conflicting temporary names. To resolve this, the child process should assign None to template, to force recomputing the default on the next call to mktemp().