mkdir

Table of Contents

• Clauses
• Empty mkdir
• mkdir from
• mkdir from vs copy into
• as clauses
• mode and permissions
• See also

mkdir <path> [from <source>] [verbatim] [mode <octal>] [when <condition>] [as <name>]

Creates a directory at <path>, with mkdir -p semantics: intermediate directories are created automatically if missing.

Clauses

Clause	Effect
from	Populate the new directory from <source>, recursively
verbatim	With from, suppress {ident} substitution in copied file contents
mode	Set directory permissions, masked to 0o0777
when	Skip creation if the condition is false
as	Bind the resolved path to a name for later reuse

Empty mkdir

The simplest form just creates a directory.

mkdir "static"
mkdir "src/main"
mkdir "{slug}/notes"
mkdir "deeply/nested/path"        # all parents created automatically

The path follows the path expression grammar. Quote any literal segment; bare identifiers are treated as variable references.

mkdir from

Populates the new directory from a source tree in the bundle (or, when running directly from a .spud file, on the filesystem relative to the current working directory).

mkdir "templates" from "base_templates"
mkdir "{dir}/docs" from "templates/docs" mode 0755

Source files are read at install time and embedded in the .spp. At run time, {ident} substitution is applied to each copied file's contents (binary files are auto-detected and copied verbatim regardless).

Add verbatim to suppress all substitution:

mkdir "assets" from "asset_tree" verbatim

mkdir from vs copy into

mkdir from creates a new directory and populates it. The destination must not already exist.

copy into requires its destination to already exist; it is for merging additional content into a directory you have already created. The two are not interchangeable; using one where the other is needed produces a runtime error.

A common pattern combines them:

mkdir "templates" from "base_templates" as template_path
copy "philosophy_templates" into template_path when use_philosophy
copy "programming_templates" into template_path when use_programming

as clauses

The as <name> clause binds the resolved path to a name. Subsequent statements can use that name as a bare path segment.

mkdir "static" as static_path
mkdir static_path/"notes"
mkdir static_path/"images"

When as is on a conditional mkdir, the alias is conditional too; references must be guarded by an equivalent condition. See Scoping for the equivalence rules.

mode and permissions

mode takes an octal literal. The value is masked to 0o0777, so setuid and setgid bits cannot be set.

mkdir "private" mode 0700
mkdir "shared" mode 0755

See also

• copy: merge content into an existing directory.
• file: create files inside the directory.
• Path expressions: full grammar for <path> and <source>.
• Pitfalls: reserved-word path segments and quoting rules.