--- apachetop-0.12.5.orig/src/apachetop.cc
+++ apachetop-0.12.5/src/apachetop.cc
@@ -1105,7 +1105,16 @@
        FILE *d;
         va_list args;
 
-       if (cf.debug && (d = fopen(DEBUG_OUTPUT, "a")))
+       static char fileName[1024] = {'\0'};
+
+       if ( !strlen( fileName ) )
+       {
+         strcpy( fileName, "/tmp/atop.XXXXXX" );
+         mkdtemp( fileName );
+         strncat( fileName, "/debug", sizeof(fileName ) );
+       }
+
+       if (cf.debug && (d = fopen(fileName, "a")))
        {
                va_start(args, fmt);
                vfprintf(d, fmt, args);