On 08/23/2010 09:40 AM, Eric Blake wrote: > On 08/23/2010 09:22 AM, John Reiser wrote: >> mktemp: Please add an option which creates a fifo >> [snip] > > Thanks for the report. However, I'm inclined to mark this bug as a > duplicate of 6330, for the reasons already documented in this long thread: > http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2010-06/msg00013.html
The suggested alternative (use "mktemp -d" to create a uniquely-named directory, then use mkfifo of an arbitrary fixed name within that directory) satisfies only some of the desired properties. Yes, it's a fifo with a safely-created unique name. However, removing that fifo leaves behind the directory, and the directory also occupies its own space [often a few kilobytes] even during the lifetime of the fifo. It is somewhat ironic that Mr. Blake's .sig promotes "Libvirt virtual- ization library", because the alternative suggestion is not a faithful virtualization of what "mktemp --fifo" should be. --
