Can't find mkdir() function in dirent.h for windows

Question

I am using dirent.h 1.20 (source) for windows in VC2013.

I can't find mkdir() in it.

How am I supposed to use it? Or can I create a directory somehow only using dirent.h?

Jennajenne

mkdir isn't supposed to live in <dirent.h>. On POSIX systems, you get it from <sys/types.h> and <sys/stat.h> (yes, you need both). – Alisiaalison

If boost is an option for you: It has a file system library, which offers the same functionality in a portable way. – Mair

You have _mkdir as part of the C library. So unless you need something else out of that other library, you don't need it for creating a directory (#include <direct.h>). – Fango

possible duplicate of How to create a folder in C (need to run on both Linux and Windows) – Galicia

Answer 1

Update: Since C++17, <filesystem> is the portable way to go. For earlier compilers, check out Boost.Filesystem.

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The header you are linking to is effectively turning your (POSIX) dirent.h calls into (native) Windows calls. But dirent.h is about directory entries, i.e. reading directories, not creating ones.

If you want to create a directory (mkdir()), you need either:

• A similar wrapping header turning your (POSIX) mkdir() call into the corresponding (native) Windows function calls (and I cannot point out such a header for you), or
• use the Windows API directly, which might be pragmatic but would lead to a really ugly mix of POSIX and Windows functions...

---

// UGLY - these two don't belong in the same source...
#include <dirent.h>
#include <windows.h>

// ...
CreateDirectory( "D:\\TestDir", NULL );
// ...

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Another solution would be to take a look at Cygwin, which provides a POSIX environment running on Windows, including Bash shell, GCC compiler toolchain, and a complete collection of POSIX headers like dirent.h, sys/stat.h, sys/types.h etc., allowing you to use the POSIX API consistently in your programming.

Marivaux

Answer 2

simplest way that helped without using any other library is.

#if defined _MSC_VER
#include <direct.h>
#elif defined __GNUC__
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#endif

void createDir(string dir) {
#if defined _MSC_VER
    _mkdir(dir.data());
#elif defined __GNUC__
    mkdir(dir.data(), 0777);
#endif
}

Jennajenne

It's there, this is a good answer and it helped me. // direct.h // Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. // Functions for directory handling and creation. – Anana

Answer 3

Visual Studio includes the <direct.h> header. This header declares _mkdir and _wmkdir, which can be used to create a directory, and are part of the C libraries included with Visual Studio.

The other "easy" option would be to use Windows API calls as indicated by DevSolar.

Fango

Answer 4

You can use sys/types.h header file and use
mkdir(const char*) method to create a directory
Following is the sample code

#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include<sys/stat.h>
#include<sys/types.h>
int main()
{
    if(!mkdir("C:mydir"))
    {
        printf("File created\n");
    }
    else
        printf("Error\n");
}

Perky

Note that Microsoft say the [mkdir] POSIX function is deprecated. Use the ISO C++ conformant _mkdir instead: " – Richrichara

Answer 5

mkdir is deprecated. Give #include <direct.h> as a header file. then write

_mkdir("C:/folder")

Crisscross