CHAPTER 9 – FILES AND STREAMS – Temporary Files

In case you want to create a temporary file, the best way to do it is with the tmpfile() function. This function creates a temporary file with a unique ran- dom name in the current directory and opens this file for writing. This tempo- rary file will be closed automatically when you close the file with fclose() or when the script ends: <?php $fp = tmpfile(); fwrite($fp, 'temporary data'); fclose(fp); ?> In case you want to have more control over where the temporary file is cre- ated and about its name, you can use the tempnam() function. On the contrary to the tmpfile() function, this file will not be removed automatically: <?php $filename = tempnam('/tmp', 'p5pp'); $fp = fopen($filename, 'w'); fwrite($fp, 'temporary data'); fclose(fp); unlink($filename); ?>

The first parameter to the function specifies the directory where the tem- porary file is created, and the second parameter is the prefix that will be added to the random file name.