# std::filesystem::create_directory, std::filesystem::create_directories

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< cpp‎ | filesystem

Defined in header `<filesystem>` |  |
bool create_directory( const std::filesystem::path& p ); bool create_directory( const std::filesystem::path& p, std::error_code& ec ); | (1) | (since C++17)
bool create_directory( const std::filesystem::path& p, const std::filesystem::path& existing_p ); bool create_directory( const std::filesystem::path& p, const std::filesystem::path& existing_p, std::error_code& ec ); | (2) | (since C++17)
bool create_directories( const std::filesystem::path& p ); bool create_directories( const std::filesystem::path& p, std::error_code& ec ); | (3) | (since C++17)

1) Creates the directory `p` as if by POSIX mkdir() with a second argument of static_cast<int>(std::filesystem::perms::all) (the parent directory must already exist). If `p` already exists and is already a directory, the function does nothing (this condition is not treated as an error).
2) Same as (1), except that the attributes of the new directory are copied from `existing_p` (which must be a directory that exists). It is OS-dependent which attributes are copied: on POSIX systems, the attributes are copied as if by

    stat(existing_p.c_str(), &attributes_stat)
    mkdir(p.c_str(), attributes_stat.st_mode)

On Windows OS, the attributes are copied as if by

    CreateDirectoryExW(existing_p.c_str(), p.c_str(), 0)

3) Executes (1) for every element of `p` that does not already exist.

The non-throwing overloads return false if any error occurs.

### Parameters

p | - | the path to the new directory to create
existing_p | - | the path to a directory to copy the attributes from
ec | - | out-parameter for error reporting in the non-throwing overload

### Return value

1,2) true if directory creation is successful, false otherwise.

### Exceptions

1,3) The overload that does not take a std::error_code& parameter throws filesystem_error on underlying OS API errors, constructed with `p` as the first argument and the OS error code as the error code argument. std::bad_alloc may be thrown if memory allocation fails. The overload taking a std::error_code& parameter sets it to the OS API error code if an OS API call fails, and executes ec.clear() if no errors occur. This overload has
`noexcept` specification:
noexcept
2) The overload that does not take a std::error_code& parameter throws filesystem_error on underlying OS API errors, constructed with `p` as the first argument, `existing_p` as the second argument, and the OS error code as the error code argument. std::bad_alloc may be thrown if memory allocation fails. The overload taking a std::error_code& parameter sets it to the OS API error code if an OS API call fails, and executes ec.clear() if no errors occur. This overload has
`noexcept` specification:
noexcept

### Notes

The attribute-preserving overload (2) is implicitly invoked by `copy()` when recursively copying directories. Its equivalent in boost.filesystem is copy_directory (with argument order reversed)

### Example

Run this code

    #include <iostream>
    #include <fstream>
    #include <cstdlib>
    #include <filesystem>
    namespace fs = std::filesystem;

    int main()
    {
        fs::create_directories("sandbox/1/2/a");
        fs::create_directory("sandbox/1/2/b");
        fs::permissions("sandbox/1/2/b", fs::perms::remove_perms | fs::perms::others_all);
        fs::create_directory("sandbox/1/2/c", "sandbox/1/2/b");
        std::system("ls -l sandbox/1/2");
        fs::remove_all("sandbox");
    }

Possible output:

    drwxr-xr-x 2 user group 4096 Apr 15 09:33 a
    drwxr-x--- 2 user group 4096 Apr 15 09:33 b
    drwxr-x--- 2 user group 4096 Apr 15 09:33 c

### See also

create_symlink create_directory_symlink (C++17)(C++17) | creates a symbolic link (function)
copy (C++17) | copies files or directories (function)
perms (C++17) | identifies file system permissions (enum)

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