mkdir

mkdir is used to create directories (if they do not already exist) on a file system.

The general format is

$ mkdir [options] directories

A simple example is:

$ mkdir dir1

This will create a folder named dir1 under the current path.

Useful Options / Examples

mkdir -p,--parents

Create parent directories as necessary. (If the sepcified parent directory already exist, no error is reported.)

This is helpful when we are creating nested directories. For example, when we do

$ mkdir -p /home/a/b/c

if /home/a/b/ does not exist, mkdir will first create it, and then create /c under it. But if we are not using the -p flag, it will report an error saying /home/a/b/ does not exist.

Also, if we are creating a directory that is already exist, without the -p flag, there will be an error saying “ File exists”; while adding the -p flag will not report an error. For example,

$ mkdir /a/d
$ mkdir /a/d
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/a/d’: File exists
$ mkdir -p /a/d

mkdir -m, --mode=MODE

Set file access mode (as with the chmod command).

For example,

$ mkdir -m 444 dir1

will create folder dir1 which is read only for all users.

More usage about file access mode code can be found here.

mkdir -v, --verbose

Verbose output; print a message for each created directory.

For example, if we do

$ mkdir -v -p -m 444 a/b/c

where a exists, but a/b does not, it will print

mkdir: created directory `a/b'
mkdir: created directory `a/b/c'

(Yes, it will just print the directory name, but not the file access mode.)

Creating Multiple and Nested directories in one line

This is not done by mkdir itself. Instead, it can be done through making use of the Shell extension.

For example,

$ mkdir -p a/{b1/c1/{d1,d2},b2,b3}

will create a tree like this

a
│   b2
│   b3
└───b1
    └─── c1
         │   d1
         │   d2