Creating multiple nested directories with one command

Question

How can I create multiple nested directories in one command?

mkdir -p /just/one/dir

But I need to create multiple different nested directories...

Solution 1

mkdir accepts multiple path arguments:

mkdir -p -- a/foo b/bar a/baz

Solution 2

To add to the above answers you can also do (in csh, tcsh, ksh, bash, zsh, fish, yash -o brace-expand):

mkdir -p /path/{to,a}/{lot,of}/directories

Solution 3

Reading the man page is always a good place to start.

The -p flag will create the required intermediate directories on the path.

Comments

[Stéphane Chazelas]

@phk, you mean in csh and similar shells supporting that particular feature (that comes from csh (late 70s)).

[Livinglifeback]

Dash being the most common current shell that doesn't support it. Bash, ZSH, and csh do.

[phk]

@StéphaneChazelas Oops. BTW, does something like caniuse.com for shells exist? (BTW, I should have added to my previous comment "For more information on its implementation in bash,")

[Stéphane Chazelas]

rc/es don't support it either but have a similar feature with mkdir /path/^(to some)^/directories

[user3142695]

What does -- mean?

[phk]

@user3142695 End of options (e.g. -s/--some-thing) and only (positional) arguments from now on. See also unix.stackexchange.com/q/11376/117599 It's not strictly necessary here, I just added it to signify further that those are multiple positional arguments.

[Pryftan]

You know even though it doesn't 'technically answer' the particular it's a very good point; you have to read the man pages as well as do - and type it out yourself helps you memorise it - if you really want to learn. Otherwise it's just a custom can of scripts for you (and in that case it may very well be a can of worms).