mkdir

mkdir [-pv] [-m mode] directory ...

mkdir creates directories with the specified names. By default, it creates the directory in the current working directory or at the specified path.The -p option is particularly useful for creating nested directory structures in a single command, as it creates all necessary parent directories and does not report an error if the target directory already exists. This makes it ideal for scripts where the directory may or may not exist.Permissions for the new directory are affected by the current umask unless explicitly set with -m. The default permission is typically 777 minus the umask value.

-p, --parents

Create parent directories as needed; no error if existing

Set file mode (permissions) for the new directory

Print a message for each created directory

Set SELinux security context of each created directory

Display help information and exit

Output version information and exit

Creating directories requires write permission in the parent directory. On filesystems with limited filename support (like FAT), certain characters in directory names may cause issues. The -p flag silently succeeds if the directory exists, which may mask errors in scripts expecting to create new directories.

The mkdir command has been part of Unix since the First Edition in 1971, making it one of the original Unix commands. It was created by Ken Thompson at Bell Labs. The command has remained remarkably stable over the decades, with the -p option added in later versions to simplify directory tree creation. It is defined by the POSIX standard and is available on all Unix-like operating systems.

rmdir(1), rm(1), ls(1), chmod(1), install(1)