4

How to mkdir command works in Linux

 2 years ago
source link: https://dev.to/smpnjn/how-to-mkdir-command-works-in-linux-1c00
Go to the source link to view the article. You can view the picture content, updated content and better typesetting reading experience. If the link is broken, please click the button below to view the snapshot at that time.
Cover image for How to mkdir command works in Linux
Johnny Simpson

Posted on Mar 10

• Originally published at fjolt.com

How to mkdir command works in Linux

On Linux and unix-like systems, like Mac, we use mkdir to make a new directory from the terminal. To do this, open up a new terminal, and make sure you're in the right directory using the cd command.

The syntax for mkdir looks like this, where dir_name is the name of your new directory, and [OPTIONS] are optional settings.

mkdir [OPTIONS] dir_name

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode

For example, to create a new directory called "hello_world", we would type:

mkdir hello_world

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode

If you want to make multiple directories, just put them in curly brackets, and separate each directory by a comma. For example, the below code makes two directories called "hello" and "world":

mkdir {hello,world}

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode

Options for mkdir

mkdir has 3 options which we can add to our command:

  • -p - this allows us to make multiple directories within each other.
  • -v - this outputs information on the directory or directories created.
  • -m - this lets us set the chmod/mode value for our directory, i.e. 777.

Making multiple directories within each other with mkdir -p

Let's say we wanted to create a folder structure, where we have a project folder within a parent folder, within a master folder. If we use just mkdir, we would have to make each individually. Instead, we can use mkdir -p to make them all at once.

mkdir -p master/parent/project

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode

This will make three directories, each within the other.

Verify a folder is created with mkdir

If we want to see a message about if mkdir was successful or not, we can use mkdir -v.

mkdir -v master

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode

The above will output the following message:

mkdir: created directory 'master'

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode

Unfortunately, -p and -v will not work together - so you have to use one or the other.

Setting the chmod or mode of a directory with mkdir

If we want to set the mode of a directory, we can set it directly with mkdir. For example, to create a directory with a chmod value of 777, we would write the following:

mkdir -m777 master

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode

Creating multiple directories with a certain chmod or mode using mkdir

We can combine -m and -p for mkdir into one command, if we want. For example, the below code will create the folder structure master/parent/project, and set each directory to a mode of 777:

mkdir -p -v -m777 master/parent/project

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode


About Joyk


Aggregate valuable and interesting links.
Joyk means Joy of geeK