Unix - create path of folders and file

linux bash shell unix scripting
toop picture toop · Feb 26, 2012 · Viewed 139.3k times · Source

I know you can do mkdir to create a directory and touch to create a file, but is there no way to do both operations in one go?

i.e. if I want to do the below when the folder other does not exist:

cp /my/long/path/here/thing.txt /my/other/path/here/cpedthing.txt

Error:

cp: cannot create regular file `/my/other/path/here/cpedthing.txt': No such file or directory

Has anyone come up with a function as a workaround for this?

Answer

evotopid picture evotopid · Feb 26, 2012

Use && to combine two commands in one shell line:

COMMAND1 && COMMAND2
mkdir -p /my/other/path/here/ && touch /my/other/path/here/cpedthing.txt

Note: Previously I recommended usage of ; to separate the two commands but as pointed out by @trysis it's probably better to use && in most situations because in case COMMAND1 fails COMMAND2 won't be executed either. (Otherwise this might lead to issues you might not have been expecting.)

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