8 Most Popular mkdir command in Linux with Examples

Table of Contents

mkdir Syntax

mkdir [OPTION]... DIRECTORY...

8 Most Popular mkdir command in Linux with Examples 1

mkdir command in Linux

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Example 1: Check mkdir command version

You can use --version option to check mkdir command version. As you can see from below output, current version is 8.22.

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir --version
mkdir (GNU coreutils) 8.22
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by David MacKenzie.

--version : output version information and exit

Example 2: Create a Directory

If you want to simply create a directory example under /home/centos path, then you need to use mkdir /home/centos/example command as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir /home/centos/example

Once above command ran successfully you can check if the directory is created or not by running ls -lrtd /home/centos/example command.

[root@localhost ~]# ls -lrtd /home/centos/example/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 6 Apr 8 12:51 /home/centos/example/

If directory already exists and you are again trying to create the same directory, then it will show below "File exists" message.

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir -v /home/centos/example
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/home/centos/example’: File exists

Example 3: Create Multiple Directories

You can also create multiple different directories in one single command as shown below. Here we are creating example, example1 and example2 directories under /home/centos path. You can also create directory at different location using single mkdir command.

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir -v /home/centos/example /home/centos/example1 /home/centos/example2
mkdir: created directory ‘/home/centos/example’
mkdir: created directory ‘/home/centos/example1’
mkdir: created directory ‘/home/centos/example2’

Example 4: Create a Directory with Read Permission

By default when you create a directory permission will be assigned based on umask value. If you want to change that permission then you need to use -m option with mkdir command to set the permission value. In this example we are providing read only permission to example directory.

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir -m=rrr /home/centos/example

-m : Set Directory permission

You can verify the directory creation and its permission by using ls -lrtd /home/centos/example command as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# ls -lrtd /home/centos/example/
dr--r--r-- 2 root root 6 Apr 8 12:52 /home/centos/example/

Example 5: Make Directory as parent directory

Sometimes you need to create recursive directories in a single command. You can do that by using -p option. Here we are creating example directory and test1 directory under example directory. If any of the below mentioned parent directory /home or /home/centos is missing, then it will be created using -p option.

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir -p /home/centos/example/test1

-p : no error if existing, make parent directories as needed

You can verify the directory creation by using ls -lrtd /home/centos/example/test1 command.

[root@localhost ~]# ls -lrtd /home/centos/example/test1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 6 Apr 8 12:55 /home/centos/example/test1

Example 6: Create a directory in verbose mode

Another important option that can be used with mkdir command is -v option using which you can see the output of mkdir command. Usually when you run mkdir command to create a directory, you won't see anything in the output. You can only verify the success of directory creation later by checking that manually. So to avoid this you can always use -v option to see the mkdir command output immediately.

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir -v /home/centos/example
mkdir: created directory ‘/home/centos/example’

-v : print a message for each created directory

You can verify the directory creation by using ls -lrtd /home/centos/example command.

[root@localhost ~]# ls -lrtd /home/centos/example/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 6 Apr 8 12:57 /home/centos/example/

Example 7: Create directory with SELinux Context set to default type

If you want to create a directory with SELinux context set to default type then you need to use -Z option with mkdir command as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir -Zv /home/centos/example
mkdir: created directory ‘/home/centos/example’

-Z : set SELinux security context of each created directory to the default type.

You can verify the directory creation by using ls -lrtd /home/centos/example command.

[root@localhost ~]# ls -lrtd /home/centos/example/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 6 Apr 8 13:02 /home/centos/example/

Example 8: Check Other mkdir command Options

You can check other options that can be used with mkdir command using --help as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir --help
Usage: mkdir [OPTION]... DIRECTORY...
Create the DIRECTORY(ies), if they do not already exist.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
-m, --mode=MODE set file mode (as in chmod), not a=rwx - umask
-p, --parents no error if existing, make parent directories as needed
-v, --verbose print a message for each created directory
-Z set SELinux security context of each created directory
to the default type
--context[=CTX] like -Z, or if CTX is specified then set the SELinux
or SMACK security context to CTX
--help display this help and exit
--version output version information and exit

GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
For complete documentation, run: info coreutils 'mkdir invocation'

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