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Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:14:42 +0200
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT gnu DOT org>
Subject: Re: which: command not found
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> From: Sven Joachim <svenjoac AT gmx DOT de>
> Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2011 19:46:30 +0100
> Bytes: 2226
> 
> >>   mktemp: create a temporary file or directory (or names)
> >> - --cut: coreutils-8.5/NEWS --
> >
> > That's my point: you need GNU Coreutils to be able to run a test suite
> > of an entirely unrelated package.
> 
> You can also use the DJGPP port of Todd Miller's mktemp, available in
> the v2tk/mktmp*.zip packages.

The situation I described was not with DJGPP.  So I had no benefit of
a ready utility that just needs a single compilation command to build.

> > How hard is it to create a temporary file/directory in a shell script?
> 
> Without using mktemp(1) or some similar utility and sticking to POSIX
> commands: very hard, probably impossible.  At least if you want to avoid
> the races and symlink attacks that happen with traditional foo$$ files.

Oh, come on! we are talking about running a test suite, for crying out
loud!  It's not like I was saying that an industry-strength program
should not use mktemp.  A test suite is something you run once, when
you build a package, and then forget about.

Again, the point is that to build a package, one should use only a
small and portable set of utilities.  The GNU Coding Standards require
that.