Temporary files and code golf

Question

In shell scripts, one can oftentimes save a few bytes by creating temporary files instead of storing information in variables. Given that the lion share of the work is usually done by invoking external programs, this is not only the golfiest, but the most natural choice.

For example, instead of the Bash script

t=`command1`
echo -n "$t"|command2
echo -n "$t"|command3

one could use

command1>t
command2<t
command3<t

which is guaranteed to work as intended and a whopping 24 bytes shorter.

Now, a production-level Bash script would create a temporary file or directory with mktemp and clean up after itself before exiting, but what should a code golf answer do?

1. Where should programs be allowed to create temporary files?

   In particular, is it OK to simply create a file in the current directory, possibly overwriting other files in the process?¹

2. Do programs have to delete the files they created in the current directory (if allowed)?

   Do programs have to delete the files they created in /tmp (which the system should eventually delete on its own)?

¹ _{It goes without saying that the answer should include a heads-up in this case.}

Answer 1

Yes, this is valid

I think that outputting information to files are okay, as long as the asker doesn't specifically tell you that it's not allowed.

Answer 2

Yes, but list them differently

It is always allowed to use mktemp or /tmp itself. But if the program use temporary files in the current directory, it should be listed as "Bash (with temporary files)" or something like that, if it is not the usual way using this language.

Answer 3

Yes, but use mktemp

mktemp -d will create a temporary directory in $tmp (usually /tmp) and print the name to stdout. The 14 extra bytes needed to call it and assign to a single-letter variable (d=$(mktemp -d)) is a fair price to pay for the use of temporary files, when other languages are typically not allowed to use them.