mkdir(1p) — Linux manual page

PROLOG | NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | OPERANDS | STDIN | INPUT FILES | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS | STDOUT | STDERR | OUTPUT FILES | EXTENDED DESCRIPTION | EXIT STATUS | CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS | APPLICATION USAGE | EXAMPLES | RATIONALE | FUTURE DIRECTIONS | SEE ALSO | COPYRIGHT

MKDIR(1P)               POSIX Programmer's Manual              MKDIR(1P)

PROLOG         top

       This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The
       Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the
       corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
       or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME         top

       mkdir — make directories

SYNOPSIS         top

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

DESCRIPTION         top

       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 mkdir() function defined in the System
       Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017, called with the following
       arguments:

        1. The dir operand is used as the path argument.

        2. The value of the bitwise-inclusive OR of S_IRWXU, S_IRWXG,
           and S_IRWXO is used as the mode argument. (If the -m option
           is specified, the value of the mkdir() mode argument is
           unspecified, but the directory shall at no time have
           permissions less restrictive than the -m mode option-
           argument.)

OPTIONS         top

       The mkdir utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
       POSIX.1‐2017, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The following options shall be supported:

       -m 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. 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.

       -p        Create any missing intermediate pathname components.

                 For each dir operand that does not name an existing
                 directory, before performing the actions described in
                 the DESCRIPTION above, the mkdir utility shall create
                 any pathname components of the path prefix of dir that
                 do not name an existing directory by performing actions
                 equivalent to first calling the mkdir() function with
                 the following arguments:

                  1. A pathname naming the missing pathname component,
                     ending with a trailing <slash> character, as the
                     path argument

                  2. The value zero as the mode argument

                 and then calling the chmod() function with the
                 following arguments:

                  1. The same path argument as in the mkdir() call

                  2. The value (S_IWUSR|S_IXUSR|~filemask)&0777 as the
                     mode argument, where filemask is the file mode
                     creation mask of the process (see the System
                     Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017, umask(3p))

                 Each dir operand that names an existing directory shall
                 be ignored without error.

OPERANDS         top

       The following operand shall be supported:

       dir       A pathname of a directory to be created.

STDIN         top

       Not used.

INPUT FILES         top

       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES         top

       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
       mkdir:

       LANG      Provide a default value for the internationalization
                 variables that are unset or null. (See the Base
                 Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2,
                 Internationalization Variables for the precedence of
                 internationalization variables used to determine the
                 values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL    If set to a non-empty string value, override the values
                 of all the other internationalization variables.

       LC_CTYPE  Determine 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).

       LC_MESSAGES
                 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the
                 format and contents of diagnostic messages written to
                 standard error.

       NLSPATH   Determine the location of message catalogs for the
                 processing of LC_MESSAGES.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS         top

       Default.

STDOUT         top

       Not used.

STDERR         top

       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES         top

       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION         top

       None.

EXIT STATUS         top

       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0    All the specified directories were created successfully, or
             the -p option was specified and all the specified
             directories either already existed or were created
             successfully.

       >0    An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS         top

       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE         top

       The default file mode for directories is a=rwx (777 on most
       systems) with selected permissions removed in accordance with the
       file mode creation mask. For intermediate pathname 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
       afterwards with chmod.

       Note that some of the requested directories may have been created
       even if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES         top

       None.

RATIONALE         top

       The System V -m option was included to control the file mode.

       The System V -p option was included to create any needed
       intermediate directories and to complement the functionality
       provided by 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 the System Interfaces volume
       of POSIX.1‐2017. For example, by default, the mode of the
       directory is affected by the file mode creation mask in
       accordance with the specified behavior of the mkdir() function.
       In this way, there is less duplication of effort required for
       describing details of the directory creation.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS         top

       None.

SEE ALSO         top

       chmod(1p), rm(1p), rmdir(1p), umask(1p)

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8,
       Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines

       The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017, mkdir(3p),
       umask(3p)

COPYRIGHT         top

       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic
       form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information
       Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The
       Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright
       (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
       Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.  In the event of any
       discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The
       Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group
       Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be
       obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page
       are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of
       the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

IEEE/The Open Group               2017                         MKDIR(1P)