About -p Option Of Mkdir Command

George2 · 04-25-2006, 06:11 AM

Hello everyone,

I have read through the Linux man page and also info page of -p option of mkdir command. But I still do not understand what it means, especially missing parent directories.

Could anyone show me an example about how to use -p please?

thanks in advance,
George

reddazz · 04-25-2006, 06:15 AM

Lets say I want to create a subdirectory called linux in a directory called games. If games doesn't already exist, I can do "mkdir games" and then cd into games and do "mkdir linux". An easier way would be to do "mkdir -p games/linux". This creates games (the parent) as well as a subdirectory called linux at the same time.

T.Hsu · 04-25-2006, 06:24 AM

Example:

Code:

test -d $HOME/test || echo "Not exist"
Not exist
mkdir -p $HOME/test/foo/bar
test -d $HOME/test/foo/bar && { echo "Exist"; } || echo "Not exist"
Exist

You see, `mkdir -p' creates directory's parent even "grand parent" directory when they are missing.

George2 · 04-25-2006, 07:30 AM

Thank you, reddazz!

Quote:

Originally Posted by reddazz

Lets say I want to create a subdirectory called linux in a directory called games. If games doesn't already exist, I can do "mkdir games" and then cd into games and do "mkdir linux". An easier way would be to do "mkdir -p games/linux". This creates games (the parent) as well as a subdirectory called linux at the same time.

You have answered my question.

regards,
George

George2 · 04-25-2006, 07:33 AM

Thanks T.Hsu!

Quote:

Originally Posted by T.Hsu

Example:

Code:

test -d $HOME/test || echo "Not exist"
Not exist
mkdir -p $HOME/test/foo/bar
test -d $HOME/test/foo/bar && { echo "Exist"; } || echo "Not exist"
Exist

You see, `mkdir -p' creates directory's parent even "grand parent" directory when they are missing.

Now I understand that -p is used to created upper level directories if they do not exist. I have also tested on my Linux machine that if -p is not specified and the upper level directories do not exist, mkdir will return error.

regards,
George