Programming Perl, 3rd Edition

File::Temp

use File::Temp qw(tempfile tempdir);

$dir = tempdir(CLEANUP => 1);
($fh, $filename) = tempfile(DIR => $dir);
($fh, $filename) = tempfile($template, DIR => $dir);
($fh, $filename) = tempfile($template, SUFFIX => ".data");
$fh = tempfile();

use File::Temp ':mktemp';

($fh, $filename) = mkstemp("tmpfileXXXXX");
($fh, $filename) = mkstemps("tmpfileXXXXXX", $suffix);
$tmpdir = mkdtemp($template);
$unopened_file = mktemp($template);

New to version 5.6.1 of Perl, the File::Temp module provides convenient functions for creating and opening temporary files securely. It's better to use this module than to try to pick a temporary file on your own. Otherwise, you'll just fall into all the same traps as everyone else before you. This module guards you against various subtle race conditions, as well as the dangers of using directories that others can write to; see Chapter 23. The tempfile function returns both a filehandle and filename. It's safest to use the filehandle that's already open and ignore the filename entirely (except perhaps for error messages). Once the file is closed, it is automatically deleted. For compatibility with the C library, the :mktemp import tag provides access to functions with names familiar to C programmers, but please remember that filenames are always less secure than filehandles.