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.

Note for Windows CMD users: CMD splits arguments on spaces before mkdir2 receives them, so an unquoted pattern like mkdir2 test2\{test3, test4} arrives as two broken fragments — test2\{test3, and test4} — and no expansion fires. Always wrap patterns that contain spaces in double quotes: mkdir2 "test2\{test3, test4}". CMD does not give \ any special meaning inside double quotes, so the full pattern reaches mkdir2 intact and works correctly. PowerShell behaves the same way: use double quotes for any pattern with spaces.

All options

Flag	Description
[PATH]...	Directories to create. Supports brace expansion and either / or \ as a separator on any platform.
--from <FILE>	Read additional path patterns from a file, one per line (- for stdin). Blank lines and # comments are ignored.
--no-parents	Disable automatic parent creation (classic strict mkdir behavior). Parents are created by default.
-f, --force	Delete an existing target first, then recreate it.
--no-recursive-remove	With --force, only remove existing empty directories instead of recursive trees.
-i, --interactive	Confirm before deleting an existing path with --force.
-m, --mode <MODE>	Octal permissions for new directories, e.g. 0755 (Unix only; warns and no-ops on Windows).
--gitkeep	Create a .gitkeep file inside every newly created directory.
-v, --verbose	Print each action as it happens.
-q, --quiet	Suppress all non-error output.
-n, --dry-run	Show what would be done without changing the filesystem.
--stats	Print a created/skipped/failed summary at the end.
--json	Emit a machine-readable JSON report instead of text.
--strict	Treat an already-existing target as an error (matches plain mkdir's strict behavior).
--color <auto|always|never>	Control colored output. Honors NO_COLOR and TTY detection in auto mode.
--no-emoji	Disable emoji icons in output.
--color-success/error/warn/info <HEX>	Customize each message type's color, e.g. --color-info '#00FFFF'.

Run mkdir2 --help for the full reference.

Brace expansion syntax

mkdir2 implements Bash-compatible brace expansion:

Pattern	Expands to
{a,b,c}	a, b, c
{a,{b,c}}	a, b, c (nested groups)
{1..5}	1, 2, 3, 4, 5
{01..05}	01, 02, 03, 04, 05 (zero-padding preserved)
{1..10..2}	1, 3, 5, 7, 9 (step)
{a..e}	a, b, c, d, e
a{1,2}b{x,y}	a1bx, a1by, a2bx, a2by (cartesian product)

Spaces around commas are trimmed automatically. {dir2, dir3} and {dir2,dir3} produce identical results — the leading/trailing whitespace around each item is stripped before expansion. This means accidental spaces after commas will never create directories with leading-space names.

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

Feature	mkdir	mkdir2
Creates parent dirs	only with -p	by default (--no-parents to opt out)
Brace expansion	only via shell (Bash)	built in, every platform/shell
/ and \ both work	no	yes, on every OS
Safe recreate-if-exists	no	--force (with --no-recursive-remove, -i)
Colored / emoji output	no	yes, fully themeable hex colors
Machine-readable output	no	--json
Dry-run preview	no	-n / --dry-run
Batch creation from a file	no	--from FILE

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

Support me on Patreon