C++: Getting a temporary file, cross-platform

Question

I'm looking for a cross-platform way of getting designated a temporary file. For example in linux that would be in the /tmp dir and in Windows in something akin to C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp.

Does a cross-platform (Boost?) solution to this exist?

EDIT:

I need this file to exist until the program terminates. tmpfile() does not guarantee that. Quoting from ccpreference:

The temporary file created is automatically deleted when the stream is closed (fclose) or when the program terminates normally.

Answer 1

The Boost Filesystem library, from version 3 of that library, can be used to create a temporary file name. It also offers a crisp solution. Indeed, the following C++ code should be platform independent:

// Boost.Filesystem VERSION 3 required #include <string> #include <boost/filesystem.hpp> boost::filesystem::path temp = boost::filesystem::unique_path(); const std::string tempstr    = temp.native();  // optional 

The filesystem path object temp can be used to open a file or create a subdirectory, while the string object tempstr offers the same information as a string.

Answer 2

If you use Qt: QTemporaryFile class is perfect.