mkdir invocation (GNU Coreutils 9.0)
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12.3 mkdir: Make directories
mkdir
creates directories with the specified names. Synopsis:
mkdir [option]… name…
mkdir
creates each directory name
in the order given. It reports an error if name
already exists, unless the -p
option is given and name
is a directory.
The program accepts the following options. Also see Common options.
- ‘
-m mode
’
‘--mode=mode
’ Set the file permission bits of created directories to
mode
, which uses the same syntax as inchmod
and uses ‘a=rwx
’ (read, write and execute allowed for everyone) for the point of the departure. See File permissions. This option affects only directories given on the command line; it does not affect any parents that may be created via the-p
option.Normally the directory has the desired file mode bits at the moment it is created. As a GNU extension,
mode
may also mention special mode bits, but in this case there may be a temporary window during which the directory exists but its special mode bits are incorrect. See Directory Setuid and Setgid, for how the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits of directories are inherited unless overridden in this way.- ‘
-p
’
‘--parents
’ Make any missing parent directories for each argument, setting their file permission bits to ‘
=rwx,u+wx
’, that is, with the umask modified by ‘u+wx
’. Ignore existing parent directories, and do not change their file permission bits.If the
-m
option is also given, it does not affect file permission bits of any newly-created parent directories. To control these bits, set the umask before invokingmkdir
. For example, if the shell command ‘(umask u=rwx,go=rx; mkdir -p P/Q)
’ creates the parentP
it sets the parent’s file permission bits to ‘u=rwx,go=rx
’. (The umask must include ‘u=wx
’ for this method to work.) To set a parent’s special mode bits as well, you can invokechmod
aftermkdir
. See Directory Setuid and Setgid, for how the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits of newly-created parent directories are inherited.- ‘
-v
’
‘--verbose
’ Print a message for each created directory. This is most useful with
--parents
.- ‘
-Z
’
‘--context[=context]
’ Without a specified
context
, adjust the SELinux security context according to the system default type for destination files, similarly to therestorecon
command. The long form of this option with a specific context specified, will set the context for newly created files only. With a specified context, if both SELinux and SMACK are disabled, a warning is issued.
An exit status of zero indicates success, and a nonzero value indicates failure.
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