tmpnam() function in C

The tmpnam() function is a special function which is declared inside “stdio.h” header file. It generates a different temporary file name each time it is called up to at least TMP_MAX names. Here TMP_MAX represents maximum number of different file names that can be produce by tmpnam() function. If it is called more than TMP_MAX times, the behavior is implementation dependent.Here, L_tmpnam define the size needed for an array of char to hold the result of tmpnam.

Syntax :

char *tmpnam(char *str)
s : The character array to copy the file name.
It generates and returns a valid temporary 
filename which does not exist. 
If str is null then it simply returns the tmp file name.




// C program to generate random temporary file names.
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
    // L_tmpnam declared in the stdio.h file.
    // L_tmpnam define length of the generated file name.
    char generate[L_tmpnam + 1]; // Add +1 for the null character.
    return 0;



The file names are dependent on running machine, which can be anything.
Example: /tmp/fileRTOA0m
         \s5gg. etc



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