Fix or alternative for mktemp in OS X

Question

I'm looking at a bash script someone else wrote that uses mktemp:

TEMP=`mktemp --directory`

However, this line does not work on my machine (OS X 10.6).

How would I fix this line so that it is cross-un*x-like-platform compatible? EDIT: An alternative command would be sufficient as well.

Answer 1

You have to supply a template. mktemp -d /tmp/foo.XXXX should work. I've never seen --directory; the -- suggests that it is a GNU extension.

Answer 2

Change --directory to -d. The former is a GNU-ism, but GNU mktemp from coreutils also supports -d. The mktemp in OS X is the same as from BSD, so -d should be pretty portable among systems that actually ship a mktemp program.