How to use a temporary file in a portable way

From	pozz <pozzugno@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	How to use a temporary file in a portable way
Date	2015-04-09 07:22 +0200
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<mg527d$f4p$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)

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I understand the more portable and secure method to change the content 
of a file is through creating a temporary file.

For example, when I need to change a CSV file, a simple configuation 
file (typical in Unix systems), a INI file (typical on Windows systems) 
and many other proprietary and standard format.

   open/create temporary file
   put the new content on temporary file
   close temporary file
   remove original file
   rename temporary file with original filename

Just to be pedantic, at the initialization of the application, I could 
check for the existence of a temporary file (in case the application 
crashed just after removing the original file and before renaming 
temporary file):

   try to open original file
   if it failes, check if temp file exists
   if yes, rename it as original filename

This method uses a temporary file.  Now the main question of this post: 
how to use (mainly create) the temporary file in a portable way?

Should I create a temporary file in the executable directory?  Or in the 
original file directory?  Or in a system-dependent (non portable) 
temporary directory?

How to choose the temporary file name?  How to face the situation when 
the temporary file name already exist?

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Thread

How to use a temporary file in a portable way pozz <pozzugno@gmail.com> - 2015-04-09 07:22 +0200
  Re: How to use a temporary file in a portable way Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2015-04-09 02:15 -0500
  Re: How to use a temporary file in a portable way Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-04-09 11:00 +0100
  Re: How to use a temporary file in a portable way James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-04-09 08:42 -0400
  Re: How to use a temporary file in a portable way Greg Martin <greg.at.softsprocket@dot.com> - 2015-04-09 15:47 +0000
    Re: How to use a temporary file in a portable way Michael Angelo Ravera <maravera@prodigy.net> - 2015-04-09 14:52 -0700
  Re: How to use a temporary file in a portable way Richard Damon <Richard@Damon-Family.org> - 2015-04-09 23:43 -0400
    Re: How to use a temporary file in a portable way Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-04-10 08:29 -0700
      Re: How to use a temporary file in a portable way Richard Damon <Richard@Damon-Family.org> - 2015-04-10 22:31 -0400
  Re: How to use a temporary file in a portable way Nobody <nobody@nowhere.invalid> - 2015-04-10 14:48 +0100

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