mkdir(P) mkdir(P) NAME mkdir - make directories SYNOPSIS mkdir [-p][-m mode] dir... DESCRIPTION The mkdir utility shall create the directories specified by the operands, in the order specified. For each dir operand, the mkdir utility shall perform actions equivalent to the mkdir() function defined in the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, called with the following arguments: The dir operand is used as the path argument. The value of the bitwise-inclusive OR of S_IRWXU, S_IRWXG, and S_IRWXO is used as the mode argument. (If the -m option is specified, the mode option-argument overrides this default.) OPTIONS The mkdir utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines. The following options shall be supported: -m mode Set the file permission bits of the newly-created directory to the specified mode value. The mode option-argument shall be the same as the mode op- erand defined for the chmod utility. In the sym- bolic_mode strings, the op characters '+' and '-' shall be interpreted relative to an assumed ini- tial mode of a= rwx; '+' shall add permissions to the default mode, '-' shall delete permissions from the default mode. -p Create any missing intermediate pathname compo- nents. For each dir operand that does not name an existing directory, effects equivalent to those caused by the following command shall occur: mkdir -p -m $(umask -S),u+wx $(dirname dir) && mkdir [-m mode] dir where the -m mode option represents that option supplied to the original invocation of mkdir, if any. Each dir operand that names an existing directory shall be ignored without error. OPERANDS The following operand shall be supported: dir A pathname of a directory to be created. STDIN Not used. INPUT FILES None. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The following environment variables shall affect the execution of mkdir: LANG Provide a default value for the internationaliza- tion variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale cate- gories.) LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables. LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi- byte characters in arguments). LC_MESSAGES Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic mes- sages written to standard error. NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES . ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS Default. STDOUT Not used. STDERR The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages. OUTPUT FILES None. EXTENDED DESCRIPTION None. EXIT STATUS The following exit values shall be returned: 0 All the specified directories were created suc- cessfully or the -p option was specified and all the specified directories now exist. >0 An error occurred. CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS Default. The following sections are informative. APPLICATION USAGE The default file mode for directories is a= rwx (777 on most systems) with selected permissions removed in accordance with the file mode creation mask. For inter- mediate pathname components created by mkdir, the mode is the default modified by u+ wx so that the subdirecto- ries can always be created regardless of the file mode creation mask; if different ultimate permissions are desired for the intermediate directories, they can be changed afterwards with chmod. Note that some of the requested directories may have been created even if an error occurs. EXAMPLES None. RATIONALE The System V -m option was included to control the file mode. The System V -p option was included to create any needed intermediate directories and to complement the function- ality provided by rmdir for removing directories in the path prefix as they become empty. Because no error is produced if any path component already exists, the -p option is also useful to ensure that a particular direc- tory exists. The functionality of mkdir is described substantially through a reference to the mkdir() function in the Sys- tem Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001. For exam- ple, by default, the mode of the directory is affected by the file mode creation mask in accordance with the specified behavior of the mkdir() function. In this way, there is less duplication of effort required for describing details of the directory creation. FUTURE DIRECTIONS None. SEE ALSO chmod() , rm , rmdir() , umask() , the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, mkdir() COPYRIGHT Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operat- ing System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Speci- fications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Insti- tute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.open- group.org/unix/online.html . POSIX 2003 mkdir(P)