CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowsshellcmdflagsmkdir
nrvaller
nrvaller

Reputation: 373

Mkdir combined with "-p" flag

I am following a tutorial where I have to create a directory but also pass -p flag. I tried running it and I got a syntax failure. So I wanted to figure out what the -p did and found that this abbreviation is short for privileged. And found

Script runs as "suid" (caution!)

Started looking what that meant and found it meant Set User Identification and read that

– When a command or script with SUID bit set is run, its effective UID becomes that of the owner of the file, rather than of the user who is running it. Source

However, I still do not quite understand it. What is the purpose of me setting a directory to have that privilege and why should I be careful? Also, I tried looking here but I couldn't find any clarification(with the different search keywords I used). Also, not necessary.. but , why would me doing mkdir -p src/entities give me a syntax failure? I am using Windows(but I also have a bash package for Anaconda).

Upvotes: 2

Views: 2789

Answers (2)

Super Kai - Kazuya Ito
Super Kai - Kazuya Ito

Reputation: 1

"-p" creates parent directories if they don't exist.

For example:

With "-p" if "first" directory doesn't exist.

mkdir -p first/second  # "first" parent directory is created

Without "-p" if "first" directory doesn't exist.

mkdir first/second  # "first" parent directory is not created 

mkdir: cannot create directory ‘first/second’: No such file or directory

Upvotes: 1

melpomene
melpomene

Reputation: 85767

It looks like you're following a Unix-ish tutorial but running the commands on Windows in cmd.exe.

As the usage instructions say:

C:\>mkdir /?
Creates a directory.

MKDIR [drive:]path
MD [drive:]path

If Command Extensions are enabled MKDIR changes as follows:

MKDIR creates any intermediate directories in the path, if needed.
For example, assume \a does not exist then:

    mkdir \a\b\c\d

is the same as:

    mkdir \a
    chdir \a
    mkdir b
    chdir b
    mkdir c
    chdir c
    mkdir d

which is what you would have to type if extensions were disabled.

Windows commands don't use - for options (and in particular, the mkdir command built into cmd doesn't understand -p).

The part about "privileged" is for the shell option -p, as in bash -p. It has nothing to do with mkdir -p, which is explained in man mkdir:

-p, --parents

         no error if existing, make parent directories as needed

But again, that only applies to the Unix mkdir, not Windows / cmd.

Upvotes: 2

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