tempfile                package:base                R Documentation

Create Names for Temporary Files

Description:

     Returns a vector of character strings which can be used as names
     for temporary files.

Usage:

     tempfile(pattern = "file")

Arguments:

 pattern: a non-empty character vector giving the initial part of the
          name.

Details:

     If `pattern' has length greater than one then the result is of the
     same length giving a temporary file name for each component of
     `pattern'. 

     The names are very likely to be unique among calls to `tempfile'
     in an R session and across simultaneous R sessions.  The filenames
     are guaranteed not to be currently in use.

     The file name is made of the pattern, the process number in hex
     and a random suffix in hex. The filenames will be in the directory
     given by the first found of the environment variables `TMP',
     `TEMP', or `"/tmp"'.

Value:

     A character vector giving the names of possible (temporary) files.

     Note that no files are generated by `tempfile'.

See Also:

     `unlink' for deleting files.

Examples:

     tempfile(c("ab", "a b c"))   # give file name with spaces in!

