MKDIR(1) General Commands Manual MKDIR(1)

mkdir — make directories

mkdir [-p] [-m mode] dir ...

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 POSIX. 1 {8} mkdir function, called with the following arguments:

  1. The dir operand is used as the path argument.
  2. The value of the bitwise inclusive OR of , , and is used as the mode argument. (If the −m option is specified, the mode option-argument overrides this default.)

The mkdir utility shall conform to the utility argument syntax guidelines described in 2.10.2. The following options shall be supported by the implementation:

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 operand defined for the chmod utility (see chmod(1) ). In the symbolic_mode strings, the op characters + and - shall be interpreted relative to an assumed initial mode of a=rwx; + shall add permissions to the default mode, - shall delete permissions from the default mode.

Create any missing intermediate pathname components. For each dir operand that does not name an existing directory, effects equivalent to those caused by 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.

The following operand shall be supported by the implementation:

dir

A pathname of a directory to be created.

None.

None.

The following environment variables shall affect the execution of mkdir:

This variable shall determine the locale to use for the locale categories when both LC_ALL and the corresponding environment variable (beginning with LC_ ) do not specify a locale. See 2.6.

This variable shall determine the locale to be used to override any values for locale categories specified by the settings of LANG or any environment variables beginning with LC_.

This variable shall determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (e.g., single- versus multibyte characters in arguments).

This variable shall determine the language in which messages should be written.

Default.

None.

Used only for diagnostic messages.

None.

None.

The mkdir utility shall exit with one of the following values:

All the specified directories were created successfully or the −p option was specified and all the specified directories now exist.

An error occurred.

Default.

The default file mode for directories is a=rwx (777) with selected permissions removed in accordance with the file mode creation mask. For intermediate path name components created by mkdir, the mode is the default modified by u+wx so that the subdirectories 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 afterward with chmod. Application writers should note that some of the requested directories may have been created even if an error occurs.

The System V −m option was added to control the file mode. The System V −p option was added to create any needed intermediate directories, to complement the functionality provided 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 directory exists. The functionality of mkdir is described substantially through a reference to the mkdir function in POSIX. 1 {8}. For example, by default, the mode of the directory is affected by the file mode creation mask in accordance with the specified behavior of POSIX. 1 {8} mkdir. In this way, there is less duplication of effort required for describing details of the directory creation.

September 1991 posix.fail