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Christine Martino
Christine Martino
16,837 Points
Posted by Christine Martino
Christine Martino
16,837 Points

If the -r flag stands for "recursive", what does the -p flag in mkdir -p actually stand for?

Knowing the meaning behind certain shorthand command names just helps me remember what they do, and I hear it called out in the video. :)

1 Answer

Ken Alger
STAFF
Ken Alger
Treehouse Teacher
Ken Alger
Ken Alger
Treehouse Teacher

Christine;

Great question!

The -p flag creates parent directories as needed. Here's an example:

Create both a parent directory called treehouse and it's child directory called courses at the same time. Assume that directory treehouse will branch-off your home directory and that you are in your home directory to start. Use a relative pathname.

You would want to use the -p flag here. The syntax would be:

mkdir -p treehouse/courses

That assumes that you are already in your home directory and have write permissions in that directory.

Hope that helps, post back with additional questions.

Ken

Christine Martino
Christine Martino
16,837 Points
Christine Martino
Christine Martino
16,837 Points

Sweet! Thanks for the super-quick answer! You guys rock!!