Is mkdir -p totally safe when creating folder already exists
mkdir -p
would not give you an error if the directory already exists and the contents for the directory will not change.
Manual entry for mkdir
A portable script will rely upon POSIX, which says of mkdir
's -p
option:
Each dir operand that names an existing directory shall be ignored without error.
and if there are no errors reported, the -p
option has done its job:
Create any missing intermediate pathname components.
mkdir WILL give you an error if the directory already exists.
mkdir -p WILL NOT give you an error if the directory already exists. Also, the directory will remain untouched i.e. the contents are preserved as they were.