In the Windows Command Prompt, and in the Bash shell (including OS X & Ubuntu Terminal, Git Bash, etc.), the mkdir command is used to create a new directory. In both shells, there are a few options supported; we’re only going to examine one of these in Bash, which corresponds to the default behavior in Command Prompt.

Commands

Windows Command Prompt

Syntax

mkdir {path}

The command creates the specified directory—including any necessary parent directories—on the specified drive. path is interpreted in accordance with “Specifying file and directory paths”.

Note that md is interchangeable with mkdir in Windows Command Shell.

Example

mkdir ..\work\src

Creates a src subdirectory in the work subdirectory of the parent directory of the current directory. If the parent directory does not contain a work subdirectory, one will be created automatically before the src subdirectory is created.

Bash shell (including OS X & Ubuntu Terminal, Git Bash, etc.)

Syntax

mkdir [options] {path …}

This command creates one or more directories, as specified. path is interpreted in accordance with “Specifying file and directory paths”.

The only option we’ll address at this time is --parents, or the equivalent -p (the latter is the form required in OS X). This option causes mkdir to create any necessary parent directories (just as mkdir in Windows Command Prompt does).

Example

mkdir --parents ../work/src ~/scratch

Creates 2 directories:

• A src subdirectory in the work subdirectory of the parent directory of the current directory. If the parent directory does not contain a work subdirectory, one will be created automatically before the src subdirectory is created.
• A scratch subdirectory in the current user’s home directory.

Tasks

1. In your command line program, use the cd command, with the appropriate command line arguments, to change the current working directory to the projects subdirectory of the bootcamp directory you created in the environment preparation portion of the pre-work.

2. Use the mkdir command to create the following subdirectories within the projects directory:

   • test1
   • test2/test3 (Remember: In Windows Command Prompt, the forward slash should be replaced by a backslash.)