mkdir2

A modern, cross-platform, production-ready replacement for mkdir — brace expansion, mixed / and \ path separators, safe force-recreate, colored + emoji output, JSON reports, dry-run, and more.

$ mkdir2 -v project/{src,tests,docs}
✅ created: project/src
✅ created: project/tests
✅ created: project/docs

Why

The classic mkdir is fine, but it hasn't changed in decades and it behaves differently depending on the shell and platform you're using. mkdir2 is a single static binary that works the same way everywhere:

• One path syntax, every OS. data\2024\reports and data/2024/reports create the exact same tree, whether you're on Linux, macOS, or Windows.
• Brace expansion, like Bash, but built in — no shell required, so it works identically from PowerShell, cmd.exe, or any script runner.
• Safe, explicit "force recreate" instead of a fragile rm -rf && mkdir two-step.
• Scriptable output: --json, --stats, --quiet, and proper exit codes for use in CI and automation.
• Themeable: pick your own hex colors, or turn color/emoji off entirely for log files and dumb terminals.

Install

From crates.io

cargo install mkdir2

From source

git clone https://github.com/cumulus13/mkdir2
cd mkdir2
cargo install --path .

Prebuilt binaries

Prebuilt binaries for Linux (gnu/musl), macOS (x86_64/aarch64), and Windows are attached to every GitHub release.

Usage

mkdir2 [OPTIONS] [PATH]...

Basic examples

# Plain creation, parents included by default (like mkdir -p)
mkdir2 build/output

# Brace expansion — creates three directories in one call
mkdir2 project/{src,tests,docs}

# Nested + cartesian expansion
mkdir2 build/{debug,release}/{bin,lib}

# Numeric ranges, with zero-padding preserved
mkdir2 file{01..10}

# Either separator works on every platform
mkdir2 "data\2024\reports"
mkdir2 "data/2024/reports"      # identical result

# Force: delete an existing tree first, then recreate it clean
mkdir2 --force old_output

# Preview without touching the filesystem
mkdir2 --dry-run new_stuff/{a,b,c}

# Batch-create from a file, one pattern per line
mkdir2 --from dirs.txt --gitkeep

Note for Bash/zsh users: \ is always treated as a path separator by mkdir2, the same as /. But on an interactive Unix shell, an unquoted backslash is consumed by the shell itself as an escape character before mkdir2 ever sees it — so mkdir2 test\ me does not create test/me; it creates a single directory named test me (the shell strips the \ and keeps the space literal). Likewise mkdir2 test\me becomes a single directory testme (the shell deletes the \ entirely). To actually use \ as a separator from Bash/zsh, quote the argument so the shell leaves it alone: mkdir2 'test\me' creates nested test/me as expected. This only matters for interactive Unix shells — it's a non-issue on Windows shells, and on patterns read from a --from file, since neither goes through Unix shell escaping.

All options

Run mkdir2 --help for the full reference.

Brace expansion syntax

mkdir2 implements Bash-compatible brace expansion:

JSON output

$ mkdir2 --json batch/{a,b,c}
{
  "created": 3,
  "already_existed": 0,
  "skipped": 0,
  "failed": 0,
  "results": [
    { "path": "batch/a", "action": "created", "message": null },
    { "path": "batch/b", "action": "created", "message": null },
    { "path": "batch/c", "action": "created", "message": null }
  ]
}

Exit code is non-zero if any target failed, even with --json, so it's safe to check $? in scripts.

mkdir2 vs. classic mkdir

Development

cargo build
cargo test
cargo fmt --check
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome at github.com/cumulus13/mkdir2.

License

MIT © Hadi Cahyadi

👤 Author

Hadi Cahyadi

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