# Making Folders and Files: mkdir and touch mkdir makes folders, several at once or a whole path of them with -p, and touch makes an empty file, so one line sets up a tidy place for your files. Novice · Unix · Linux · Updated November 10, 2026 ## After this lesson you can - Make folders with mkdir, and a whole path of folders at once with mkdir -p - Make an empty file with touch ## Key takeaways - mkdir and a name makes a folder in the folder you're in. Give it several names, and it makes one folder for each. - mkdir -p makes a whole path at once, every missing folder on the way included, and says nothing if the folder is already there. - touch and a name makes an empty file. On a file that already exists, it only updates the date it last changed. - A name with spaces needs quotes, or mkdir and touch make one thing for each word. A new school term starts on Monday. You want a folder for each class, and inside each one a folder for notes and one for homework. Meanwhile your Downloads folder is a pile of summer photos, a lease, receipts and a couple of songs, all waiting for folders to be sorted into. In a file manager, every folder is a right-click, *New Folder*, a name and Enter: a dozen folders is a dozen rounds of that. In the terminal, one line can make them all. ## mkdir: make a folder `mkdir` is short for *make directory*, and *directory* is the terminal's word for a folder. Give it a name, and it makes that folder. Start this chapter's practice folder, a made-up Downloads folder, and go into it: ```bash mkdir ~/terminal-practice/downloads cd ~/terminal-practice/downloads ls ``` `ls` prints nothing, because the new folder is empty. Give `mkdir` several names, and it makes one folder for each: ```bash mkdir photos music documents ls ``` ```text documents music photos ``` Ask for a folder that's already there, and `mkdir` stops with an error and changes nothing: ```bash mkdir photos ``` ```text mkdir: photos: File exists ``` These lessons were run on Ubuntu. On a Mac and on other Linux systems, error messages are worded a little differently, but they mean the same thing. One real difference: a Mac ignores capital letters in names, so there `mkdir Photos` fails too, because `Photos` and `photos` are the same folder. On Linux they're two different folders. ## touch: make an empty file `touch` makes an empty file. Its name comes from what it does to a file that's already there: it touches it, updating the date it last changed, and leaves what's inside alone. Given a name that isn't there yet, it makes a new, empty file. Fill the practice folder with the mess this chapter sorts out: ```bash touch IMG_2041.jpg IMG_2042.jpg IMG_2043.jpg IMG_2051.jpg beach-day.png touch boarding-pass.pdf lease.pdf resume.docx road-trip-mix.mp3 rainy-day.mp3 touch receipt-2026-01.pdf receipt-2026-02.pdf receipt-2026-05.pdf receipt-2026-11.pdf ls ``` ```text IMG_2041.jpg boarding-pass.pdf rainy-day.mp3 resume.docx IMG_2042.jpg documents receipt-2026-01.pdf road-trip-mix.mp3 IMG_2043.jpg lease.pdf receipt-2026-02.pdf IMG_2051.jpg music receipt-2026-05.pdf beach-day.png photos receipt-2026-11.pdf ``` Fourteen files and three folders. The files are stand-ins: a real photo has a picture inside, and these have only a name. `ls -l` shows the size, 0 bytes: ```bash ls -l lease.pdf ``` ```text -rw-r--r-- 1 sam sam 0 Nov 9 04:03 lease.pdf ``` Your date will be today's. People use `touch` for a file they'll fill in later, such as an empty `notes.txt` for a new class, or for a file a program expects to find. Both commands follow the rule from *The Shape of a Command*: spaces separate arguments. `mkdir lab reports` makes two folders, `lab` and `reports`; `mkdir "lab reports"` makes one. ## mkdir -p: a whole path at once Back to the school term. Go up to your practice folder and make a folder for biology, inside `fall-2026`, inside `school`, though neither of those exists yet: ```bash cd ~/terminal-practice mkdir school/fall-2026/biology ``` ```text mkdir: No such file or directory ``` `mkdir` makes only the last folder of a path, and it can't put `biology` inside a `fall-2026` that isn't there. (On other systems, this message also names the path.) Add `-p`, for *parents*, the folders a folder sits inside, and `mkdir` makes every missing folder on the way: ```bash mkdir -p school/fall-2026/biology ls school ls school/fall-2026 ``` ```text fall-2026 biology ``` `-p` has a second job: when the folder is already there, it says nothing and carries on. That makes `mkdir -p` safe to run twice, which is why the setup lines in this course use it. Add the other classes the same way: ```bash mkdir -p school/fall-2026/history school/fall-2026/math ls school/fall-2026 ``` ```text biology history math ``` Typing `school/fall-2026/` for every class gets old fast. *Brace Expansion: Twelve Folders in One Line* shows how to write it once. ## Try it in the terminal [Terminal Quest: Moving Day, goal 2](https://www.ask-codey.com/games/terminal-quest/new-place/bash/step): played right on the lesson page. You've moved into a new apartment, and the movers left your books in the hallway. Give them somewhere to go: make a bookshelf, a new folder, in the living room. ## Check yourself 2 questions to try on the lesson page. ## So what A new term, a new project and a new job each start with a set of folders. `mkdir -p` makes them in one line, and `touch` adds the empty files you'll fill in later. ## Key terms - [mkdir](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/mkdir) - [touch](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/touch) - [Directory](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/directory) - [File Path](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/file-path) ## Cheat sheets - [Making Folders and Files: mkdir and touch](https://www.ask-codey.com/cheat-sheets/bash-making-folders-and-files-cheat-sheet) ## Related - [Copy, Move and Rename: cp and mv](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/bash-copy-move-rename) - [Brace Expansion: Twelve Folders in One Line](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/bash-brace-expansion) Source: https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/bash-making-folders-and-files