MKDIR Error?

carlosinfl · 12-08-2006, 04:11 PM

Anyone know why I received this error? I don't understand and I thought I was doing this correctly.

As you can see I am "cwilliams" and am in my own home directory however I got a strange permission denied error yet it still made the 2 directories I requested.

Code:

cwilliams@cwilliams:~$ pwd
/home/cwilliams
cwilliams@cwilliams:~$ man mkdir
Reformatting mkdir(1), please wait...
cwilliams@cwilliams:~$
cwilliams@cwilliams:~$ mkdir -p /pics/wallpaper
mkdir: cannot create directory `/pics': Permission denied
cwilliams@cwilliams:~$ whoami
cwilliams
cwilliams@cwilliams:~$ pwd
/home/cwilliams
cwilliams@cwilliams:~$ mkdir pics
mkdir: cannot create directory `pics': File exists
cwilliams@cwilliams:~$ ls
Desktop  pics
cwilliams@cwilliams:~$ cd pics/
cwilliams@cwilliams:~/pics$ ls
wallpaper

reddazz · 12-08-2006, 04:18 PM

Code:

cwilliams@cwilliams:~$ mkdir -p /pics/wallpaper
mkdir: cannot create directory `/pics': Permission denied

The output here is correct because you need to be root to create a subdirectory in /.

As for the rest, its a bit puzzling. Are you sure pics/wallpaper did not exist before?

carlosinfl · 12-08-2006, 04:21 PM

Wow - I am pretty embarrassed I did not realize I was trying to create a dub dir under the root dir. I thought it was under my home dir. Sorry for the brain fart.

pixellany · 12-08-2006, 04:39 PM

That is how we learn. "/" is a powerful character---one too many or one too few and you wind up not where you expected to be.....

carlosinfl · 12-08-2006, 04:40 PM

Thanks! I see my mistake.

reddazz · 12-08-2006, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

That is how we learn. "/" is a powerful character---one too many or one too few and you wind up not where you expected to be.....

Well said. I learnt that the hard way and ended up with a broken system.