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       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

       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  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

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())

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   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

       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 either already existed or were created
             successfully.

       >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 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

       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  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

       None.

COPYRIGHT

       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 .