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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 |
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MKDIR(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual MKDIR(1P)
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.
mkdir — make directories
mkdir [-p] [-m mode] dir...
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.)
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.
The following operand shall be supported:
dir A pathname of a directory to be created.
Not used.
None.
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.
Default.
Not used.
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
None.
None.
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.
Default.
The following sections are informative.
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.
None.
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.
None.
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)
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)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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