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+\section{Built-in module \sectcode{tempfile}}
+\stmodindex{tempfile}
+\indexii{temporary}{file name}
+\indexii{temporary}{file}
+
+\renewcommand{\indexsubitem}{(in module tempfile)}
+
+This module generates temporary file names.  It is not UNIX specific,
+but it may require some help on non-UNIX systems.
+
+Note: the modules does not create temporary files, nor does it
+automatically remove them when the current process exits or dies.
+
+The module defines a single user-callable function:
+
+\begin{funcdesc}{mktemp}{}
+Return a unique temporary filename.  This is an absolute pathname of a
+file that does not exist at the time the call is made.  No two calls
+will return the same filename.
+\end{funcdesc}
+
+The module uses two global variables that tell it how to construct a
+temporary name.  The caller may assign values to them; by default they
+are initialized at the first call to \code{mktemp()}.
+
+\begin{datadesc}{tempdir}
+When set to a value other than \code{None}, this variable defines the
+directory in which filenames returned by \code{mktemp()} reside.  The
+default is taken from the environment variable \code{TMPDIR}; if this
+is not set, either \code{/usr/tmp} is used (on UNIX), or the current
+working directory (all other systems).  No check is made to see
+whether its value is valid.
+\end{datadesc}
+\ttindex{TMPDIR}
+
+\begin{datadesc}{template}
+When set to a value other than \code{None}, this variable defines the
+prefix of the final component of the filenames returned by
+\code{mktemp()}.  A string of decimal digits is added to generate
+unique filenames.  The default is either ``\code{@\var{pid}.}'' where
+\var{pid} is the current process ID (on UNIX), or ``\code{tmp}'' (all
+other systems).
+\end{datadesc}
+
+Warning: if a UNIX process uses \code{mktemp()}, then calls
+\code{fork()} and both parent and child continue to use
+\code{mktemp()}, the processes will generate conflicting temporary
+names.  To resolve this, the child process should assign \code{None}
+to \code{template}, to force recomputing the default on the next call
+to \code{mktemp()}.