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



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

NAME
       mkdir - make directories

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

DESCRIPTION
       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 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, 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 mode option-argument overrides this default.)

OPTIONS
       The  mkdir  utility  shall  conform  to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, 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 charac-
              ters '+' 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, effects equivalent to those caused by the following com-
       mand shall occur:


              mkdir -p -m $(umask -S),u+wx $(dirname dir) &&
              mkdir [-m mode] dir

       where the -m mode option represents that option supplied to the original invocation of mkdir, if any.

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


OPERANDS
       The following operand shall be supported:

       dir    A pathname of a directory to be created.


STDIN
       Not used.

INPUT FILES
       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       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  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of international-
              ization 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 stan-
              dard error.

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


ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.

STDOUT
       Not used.

STDERR
       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.

EXIT STATUS
       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 now exist.

       >0     An error occurred.


CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
       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 ulti-
       mate 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
       None.

RATIONALE
       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  Inter-
       faces  volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.  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
       None.

SEE ALSO
       chmod(), rm, rmdir(), umask(), the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, mkdir()

COPYRIGHT
       Portions  of  this  text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for
       Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6,  Copy-
       right (C) 2001-2003 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.open-
       group.org/unix/online.html .



IEEE/The Open Group                                           2003                                                     MKDIR(1P)