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mkdir(1) General Commands Manual mkdir(1) NAME mkdir - Makes a directory SYNOPSIS mkdir [-m mode] [-p] directory... STANDARDS Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry stan- dards as follows: mkdir: XPG4, XPG4-UNIX Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about in- dustry standards and associated tags. OPTIONS Sets the file permissions to mode, a symbolic mode string as defined for chmod, after creating the specified directory. The mode argument can be either an absolute mode string or a symbolic mode string as de- fined for chmod. See the chmod(1) reference page. In symbolic mode strings, the operation characters + and - are interpreted relative to an assumed initial mode of a=rwx, A + adds permissions to the default mode, whereas a - deletes per- missions from the default mode. Creates intermediate directo- ries as necessary; otherwise, the full path name prefix to di- rectory must already exist. The user must have mkdir write per- mission in the parent directory. Each component of directory that does not name an existing di- rectory is created with mode 777, modified by the current file mode creation mask (umask). The equivalent of chmod u+wx is performed on each component to ensure that mkdir can create lower directories regardless of the setting of umask. Each com- ponent of directory that names an existing directory is ignored without error, except for the last component. If an intermedi- ate path name component exists, but permissions are set to pre- vent writing or searching, mkdir fails and returns an error mes- sage. The mode argument does not apply to any intermediate di- rectories created when the -p option is specified. OPERANDS The path name of the directory to be created. DESCRIPTION The mkdir command creates new directories with read, write, and execute permissions based upon the permissions established by the umask set- ting. [DIGITAL] The mkdir command also creates the standard entries (dot) for the directory itself and (dot dot) for its parent. NOTES Some of the requested directories may be created although an error oc- curs subsequent to the directory creation. If the directory specified by the -p option already exists, the command fails with a message to the user, but does not return an error status, in compliance with POSIX.2. [DIGITAL] To make a new directory, you must have write per- mission in the parent directory. EXIT STATUS The following exit values are returned: All requested directories were created, or the -p option was used and all of the requested directories now exist. An error occurred. EXAMPLES To create a new directory called test, enter: mkdir test To set file permissions for new directory test in absolute mode, enter: mkdir -m 444 test To set file permissions for new directory test in symbolic mode, enter: mkdir -m+rw test ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The following environment variables affect the execution of mkdir: Pro- vides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value from the default locale is used. If any of the internationalization vari- ables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of the variables had been defined. If set to a non-empty string value, over- rides the values of all the other internationalization variables. De- termines 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). Determines the locale for the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error. Deter- mines the location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MES- SAGES. SEE ALSO Commands: chmod(1), rm(1), rmdir(1), Bourne shell sh(1b), POSIX shell sh(1p), umask(1) Functions: mkdir(2) Standards: standards(5) mkdir(1)