Helpful command-line tips for Linux users part 5: working with directories - mkdir

list of all commands

explanation of the convention:

[] : values in square brackets are optional

mkdir BASIC USAGE 
mkdir [OPTION] DIRECTORY- make a new DIRECTORY

for example this will create a directory games in /home/ishtar/

> cd /home/ishtar
> mkdir games

this will do exactly the same, but when you're in a different dir.

> cd /
> mkdir /home/ishtar/games

Creating many directories in one go:

> cd /home/ishtar/games
~/games > ls
~/games >
~/games > mkdir mmos puzzle rpg strategy fps
~/games > ls 
fps  mmos  puzzle  rpg  strategy

As you can see this creates only one level of directories, but if you want to create a whole tree then that's possible as well with -p option:

~/games > mkdir -p mmos/screenshots/2015/wow
~/games > ls -R mmos/
mmos/:
screenshots

mmos/screenshots:
2015

mmos/screenshots/2015:
wow

mmos/screenshots/2015/wow:

as you can see if a directory exists (mmos) it will not get created, and no error will show up, the other directories are created.