How to create a file and parent directories in one command?

Question

Is there a flag/option for touch, mkdir, >, or some other command that will allow me to create a file and any non-existent parent directories at the same time?

For instance, let's say I'm in an empty folder. Now I can create parent directories if they don't exist when creating a folder

mkdir -p nested/folder

I can create files in existing directories

touch nested/folder/something.txt

But I can't create a file in a directory that doesn't exist yet

touch nested/folder/deep/more.txt

touch: cannot touch ‘nested/folder/deep/more.txt’: No such file or directory

How would I create that deep folder at the same time I create more.txt ?

Solution

You can combine the two commands on a single line. If you use a variable you can do this:

file="./nested/folder/deep/more.txt"

And then this:

mkdir -p "${file%/*}" && touch "$file"

Or all together on one line like this:

mkdir -p "./nested/folder/deep" && touch "./nested/folder/deep/more.txt"

It's not one single command but it might do the job for you.

Comments

[frederj]

Thanks! I came here because I was having a similar issue with cat and responses below proved helpful A little more info about mkdir -p linfo.org/make_directory_tree.html

[B12Toaster]

I recommend dirname ${file} instead of cryptic ${file%/*}

[Brian Underwood]

The question got to something I've been wanting for a long time, but while this answer got me there, it didn't give me exactly what I wanted. So I wanted to share this function that I just created mktouch() { mkdir -p $(dirname $1) && touch $1; }. I put that in my .bash_profile and now I can do mktouch dir/path/file.ext and it creates the directory and touches in one command

[mwfearnley]

@BrianUnderwood probably a good idea to wrap things in quotes: mkdir -p "$(dirname "$1")" && touch "$1"

[Brian Underwood]

Fixed in in my .bash_profile, thanks!

[JRadness]

@mwfearnley How to properly wrap commands in nested quotes in "$(dirname "$1")". I tried your command but it created weird directories and didn't touch any files. Then I tried using single quote outside, and then tried single quote inside, and also tried backticks. Currently I have only wrapped $1 in quotes and kept dirname command itself without quotes. I should also disclose that i am using $@ instead of $1 to accept multiple parameters.

[francis]

mkdir -p parent/child && touch $_/file.txt

[RoboticRenaissance]

I hate when I see this... "How do I do X in one command?" "Oh, it's simple. Just do two commands and join them on one line". And it's like... no... they clearly want "One Command"

[Admin]

Actually, this answer contains 2 cmds put together in one line. I think this is not the answer the questioner wants!