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# tempnam

(PHP 3, PHP 4 )

tempnam -- Create file with unique file name

## Description

string tempnam ( string dir, string prefix)

Creates a file with a unique filename in the specified directory. If the directory does not exist, tempnam() may generate a file in the system's temporary directory, and return the name of that.

Prior to PHP 4.0.6, the behaviour of the tempnam() function was system dependent. On Windows the TMP environment variable will override the `dir` parameter, on Linux the TMPDIR environment variable has precedence, while SVR4 will always use your `dir` parameter if the directory it points to exists. Consult your system documentation on the tempnam(3) function if in doubt.

Returns the new temporary filename, or the `FALSE` string on failure.

Example 1. tempnam() example
    $tmpfname = tempnam ("/tmp", "FOO");

    $fp = fopen($tmpfname, "w");
    fwrite($fp, "writing to tempfile");
    fclose($fp);

    // do here something

    unlink($tmpfname);

> Note: This function's behavior changed in 4.0.3. The temporary file is also created to avoid a race condition where the file might appear in the filesystem between the time the string was generated and before the the script gets around to creating the file. Note, that you need to remove the file in case you need it no more, it is not done automatically.

See also tmpfile() and unlink().

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