Single "mkdir" command to make a new directory and change to that directory at the same time?

Question

Quick question:

Is it possible to use "mkdir" to make a new directory AND change to that directory at the same time using a single 'mkdir' command?

Whole question:

I have this question:

What single Linux “mkdir” command could replace the sequence of commands?
         mkdir a
         cd a
         mkdir b
         cd b
         mkdir c
         cd ../..

My answer is:

         mkdir a b c && cd c

Is there a single "mkdir" command, without using any other commands, perhaps with some flags or something, I can use to make AND change directory at the same time?

And https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/125385/combined-mkdir-and-cd ... — muru, Nov 22 '18 at 07:05
Your question title and your question body don't match. The question body says (paraphrased) can I combine these three mkdir commands into a single mkdir command? If you understood the list of six commands (which, apparently, you don't), you would see that you end up in the top-level directory where you started. — G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica', Nov 22 '18 at 07:41
I believe that this question has been misinterpreted and closed incorrectly. (OK, it probably is a duplicate, but not of any of the questions linked here.) Filipe Brandenburger's answer is the right answer to this question. — G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica', Nov 22 '18 at 07:45
@G-Man dupe of https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/84191/ or https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/49263/recursive-mkdir then? — muru, Nov 22 '18 at 07:56
@Stephen can you edit the duplicates list to include one of these two as well? — muru, Nov 22 '18 at 07:59
Yeah, I misread the question completely and misunderstood the ../.., thanks anyway! — Matt, Nov 22 '18 at 10:20

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 22 '18 at 07:14

2

The question you present of using a single mkdir command to do the same as the other steps doesn't really involve changing directories. It ends with cd ../.. which brings you back to the directory you were in at the start.

In effect, that sequence of commands creates a directory a, then a directory b within it (in other words, a/b), then a directory c within the just created b (in other words, a/b/c.)

You can do the same with a single mkdir command that creates the nested directories after creating their parents:

mkdir a a/b a/b/c

Another way is using mkdir's -p option, which will create the parent directories if necessary, so you don't need to specify them:

mkdir -p a/b/c

This doesn't answer your question in the title (for mkdir + cd look at the duplicates from the comments), but addresses the question in your text, about the equivalent single mkdir command for that sequence, in which at the end of the sequence the directory is the same as at the start of it.

answered Nov 22 '18 at 07:14

filbranden

21,751
4
63
86

1

This is the right answer. Of course, I'm a little biased, because it is remarkably similar to the answer I just finished typing in Notepad. Good job on getting it in 25 minutes ahead of me! – G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica' Nov 22 '18 at 07:40
@G-Man Great minds think alike – filbranden Nov 22 '18 at 07:41
1

Oh, I misunderstood the question, oops! Thanks for the reply! – Matt Nov 22 '18 at 07:53
@G-Man Why are you typing it in notepad? Type it into the shell, see if it works. – ctrl-alt-delor Nov 22 '18 at 10:13

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 22 '18 at 07:11

1

Do it as a function:

mkcdir ()
{
    mkdir -p -- "$1" &&
      cd -P -- "$1"
}

answered Nov 22 '18 at 07:11

Michael Prokopec

2,220

Single "mkdir" command to make a new directory and change to that directory at the same time?

2 Answers2