George Georgalis wrote:
> I'm developing a makefile target that does some
> administrative tasks.  Some targets modify /etc
> files. I'd like to generate a unique id when I make
> the target, so on it's completion, we can check for
> any files that have changed.
> 
> If this was shell, I'd use something like
> 
>  	lock=/tmp/${0}-$$ ; [ -e "$lock"] || touch $lock

Not really answering your question but I suggest using
${TMPDIR:-/tmp} instead of /tmp.

-- 
Christian