unix - How to create a temporary directory in C?

Question

I am trying to create a temporary directory to perform some operations in it and then delete the whole thing at the end. I use C language in a UNIX system, so I would like to have some compliance with this environment.

What is the best way to program this ?

EDIT I really need a directory, not only a file. The small program is intended to try out if I can perform an svn checkout of a project. So, it should be able to create a full hierarchy of files and directories.

Answer 1

You should use mkdtemp function.

#define  _POSIX_C_SOURCE 200809L

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
        char template[] = "/tmp/tmpdir.XXXXXX";
        char *dir_name = mkdtemp(template);

        if(dir_name == NULL)
        {
                perror("mkdtemp failed: ");
                return 0;
        }

        /* Use it here */
        printf("%s", dir_name);



        /* Don't forget to delete the folder afterwards. */
        if(rmdir(dir_name) == -1)
        {
                perror("rmdir failed: ");
                return 0;
        }


        return 0;

}

Don't forget to delete the directory afterwards!