touch command for directories?

HalfMadDad · 09-27-2011, 08:50 PM

Hi Everyone

touch creates a file or updates a timestamp. mkdir throws an error if the directory already exists.

Is there a command that that would make directories but not throw errors if they are already present and that will not clobber them if they already exist? , much like touch.

Thanks for reading-Patrick

David the H. · 09-27-2011, 09:22 PM

mkdir -p

sag47 · 09-27-2011, 09:27 PM

mkdir will not clobber a directory if it already exists. It will just skip it and move on.

You can do this a couple of ways (bash).

Code:

mkdir -p /some/directory

#or this way
if [ ! -d /some/directory ];then mkdir -p /some/directory;fi

See man mkdir for what -p does.

HalfMadDad · 09-27-2011, 09:53 PM

Thanks David and sag47. Have a great day!