A Quick Guide to mktemp in Bash

Note#120

notes
Published

2023-09-23

Overview

The mktemp command creates a temporary file or directory safely, ensuring that the file name is unique to avoid any conflicts.

Syntax

  • Basic usage for creating a temporary file: mktemp
  • For creating a temporary directory: mktemp -d

Options

  • -d: Create a directory instead of a file
  • -t [template]: Use a custom template for the filename

Use Case: Temporary File for Script Logging

Here’s a simple Bash script example that uses mktemp to create a temporary log file. The script writes some output to this log file and then prints the contents.

#!/bin/bash

# Create a temporary file with a custom template
temp_log=$(mktemp -t mytemp_XXX)

# Perform some operations and redirect output to the temporary log file
echo "This is a test log entry" > "$temp_log"

# Display the log
echo "Temporary log created: $temp_log"
cat "$temp_log"

# Clean up
rm "$temp_log"