PHP mkdir recursive

Introduction

In PHP, mkdir() function is used to create a directory. When creating a directory, sometimes we need to create the entire directory path recursively, i.e., if a directory is to be created inside a directory that doesn't exist, the entire directory path needs to be created. In such a case, we use mkdir() function with the recursive flag.

Syntax

bool mkdir ( string $pathname [, int $mode = 0777 [, bool $recursive = FALSE [, resource $context ]]] )

The fourth parameter, $recursive, if set to TRUE, creates the entire directory path recursively.

Example

Suppose we want to create a directory path /var/www/html/mywebsite/images, where mywebsite and images directories do not exist. We can create this directory path recursively using the following code snippet:

<?php
$path = '/var/www/html/mywebsite/images';
 
// Create directory path recursively
if(!is_dir($path)) {
    mkdir($path, 0777, true);
}
?>

In the above code, we first check if the directory path already exists using the is_dir() function. If it doesn't exist, we call the mkdir() function with the recursive flag set to true to create the entire directory path recursively.

Notes

• The second parameter $mode sets the permissions for the newly created directory. In the above example, we set it to 0777, which gives full permissions to the directory. It is recommended to set the permissions according to your needs and security requirements.
• If the $recursive flag is set to TRUE, and any intermediate directory doesn't exist, mkdir() function creates the intermediate directory with the permissions set to $mode.