Re: /bin/tempfile missing in debianutils 5.0.1-1

[Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org>]

On Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 02:47:44PM +0200, Miguel A. Vallejo wrote:
> A quick look in .xsession-errors showed tempfile command was missing.
> 
> tempfile must be in debian-utils package but it isn't
> 
> https://packages.debian.org/sid/amd64/debianutils/filelist
> 
> Is this a bug or a change in the policy?

Seems to be intentional.

https://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/changelogs//main/d/debianutils/debianutils_5.0.1-1_changelog

debianutils (5.0-1) unstable; urgency=medium

  [ Tomas Pospisek ]
  * run-parts.8: document --debug flag introduced in commit 37596c61
  * run-parts.8: mention that run-parts runs parts sequentially

  [ Clint Adams ]
  * run-parts: Apply patch from Christoph Biedl to add --debug flag.
    closes: #243676.
  * Add missing newline to regexp build error, thanks to Christoph Biedl.
  * Remove tempfile.
  * Deprecate which.
  * Move run-parts to /usr/bin and installkernel to /usr/sbin.

 -- Clint Adams <clint@debian.org>  Tue, 17 Aug 2021 17:03:42 -0400


If you're using tempfile(1) in a shell script that you wrote, I'd
suggest using mktemp(1) instead.  It looks like the bullseye man page
agrees:

BUGS
       Exclusive creation is not guaranteed when creating files on NFS  parti‐
       tions.  tempfile cannot make temporary directories.  tempfile is depre‐
       cated; you should use mktemp(1) instead.

If it's some Debian shell script using tempfile(1), I'd file a bug
report against it.