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Previously mktemp used to create files in /tmp. Today I noticed that mktemp is creating file in $PWD rather than in /tmp?

Did I change something inadvertently? Any suggestions to fix this?

Note:

I am able to do: ls /tmp

$ mktemp --version
mktemp (GNU coreutils) 8.30

$ echo $TMPDIR

$
Porcupine
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1 Answers1

5

For the GNU Coreutils implementation, there is a difference depending on whether an explicit TEMPLATE is provided on the command line or not. As per the man page:

SYNOPSIS
      mktemp [OPTION]... [TEMPLATE]

If TEMPLATE is not specified, use `tmp.XXXXXXXXXX`, and `--tmpdir` is implied.

(note the --tmpdir is implied); where

   -p DIR, --tmpdir[=DIR]
          interpret TEMPLATE relative to DIR; if DIR is not specified, use $TMPDIR 
          if set, else /tmp.

So

$ mktemp foo.XXX
foo.eWT

uses the current directory, whereas plain

$ mktemp
/tmp/tmp.hrY7qNWWty

defaults to /tmp (since --tmpdir is implied, but no $TMPDIR set).

steeldriver
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