mkdirhier(1x)

mkdirhier1x

Create a directory hierarchy

Usage

mkdirhier directory ...

Overview

mkdirhier creates the specified directories. Unlike some versions of mkdir, if any of the parent directories of the specified directory do not exist, mkdirhier creates them as well.

mkdirhier is a wrapper for mkdir; systems with mkdir(1) implementations conformant with the Single Unix Specification may simply use mkdir -p instead — this includes all systems using the GNU Core Utilities' version of mkdir.

Diagnostics

If mkdirhier is not supplied with any arguments, a usage message is printed.

mkdirhier prefixes its diagnostic messages with the name under which it was invoked, followed by a colon (‘:’) so that its messages can be distingushed from others.

could not create directory "directory"

indicates that there was a failure while creating directory. This message will likely be preceded by a diagnostic message from mkdir.

Exit status

64

mkdirhier was not given any directory names to create.

mkdirhier otherwise exits with the exit status of the last mkdir command that failed.

Releases

7 releases since Debian 1.1 (Buzz); the text changed 3 times.

  1. 1.1
  2. 1.3–2.2
  3. 3.0
  4. 3.1

Bugs

mkdirhier does not create all the requested directories as an atomic operation; therefore, it is is susceptible to race conditions. For example, if mkdirhier is directed to create a hierarchy a/b/c/d and any of a/, b/, or c/ do not yet exist, any of the newly-created directories can be removed and/or replaced by a symbolic link to another location in the window of time after mkdirhier creates a directory and the directory immediately below it. This means that failures can be provoked (since mkdir will fail to create a directory in a directory that does not already exist), or directories may be created in unexpected locations. The same limitation holds for multiple directory arguments to mkdirhier; given two arguments a/b/c/d and a/b/c/f, it is possible for the directory hierarchy a/b/c to be disrupted in the time between the processing of the two arguments. To avoid these problems, use mkdir -p instead, or do not use mkdirhier to create directories in parts of the filesystem where untrusted users can manipulate them.

From xutils 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14sarge7 in Debian 3.1 (Sarge). Parsed by carta from the page's man source.