Create file recursive in C Linux - c

Question

I want to create file test in this path /tmp/a1/a2/a3/a4/test
But all the directories (a1..a4) doesn't exist, How can I create this file in C at Linux OS?

Answer 1

You can use the mkdir function from sys/stat.h to create the directories as you need them. E.g.,
mkdir("/tmp/a1",0766);
However, you should check, via stat, whether or not the directories exist already.
Once you've created the directory structure, your file can be created with
open("/tmp/a1/a2/a3/a4/test",O_WRONLY|O_CREAT);
Obviously, you need to check the return values of all of these function calls.

Answer 2

Below is a complete function in C that achieves what you want.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
int create_file_with_parent_dirs (char pathname[])
{
for (char *p = pathname; (p = strchr(p ,'/')) != NULL; ++p) {
char c = p[1];
p[1] = '\0';
errno = 0;
if (mkdir(pathname, 0700) != 0 && errno != EEXIST) {
perror("mkdir");
return -1;
}
p[1] = c;
}
int fd = creat(pathname, 0600);
if (fd < 0)
perror("creat");
return fd;
}
int main (void)
{
char pathname[] = "/tmp/a1/a2/a3/a4/test";
create_file_with_parent_dirs(pathname);
}
Note that the array pointed to by pathname must be modifiable. Do not call the function with a string literal. Also beware that the file will be truncated to zero length if it already exists.

Answer 3

You can use this code. This program split the path and check whether the path exist or not if not create the path and create the final path as file.
#include <dirent.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <vector>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
int checkDir(char * path)
{
DIR* dir = opendir(path);
if (dir) {
/* Directory exists. */
closedir(dir);
return 0;
} else if (ENOENT == errno) {
/* Directory does not exist. */
return -1;
} else {
/* opendir() failed for some other reason. */
return -2;
}
}
int make_dir(char *path)
{
int ret = checkDir(path);
if( ret == -1)
{
if (mkdir(path, 0777) == -1)
{
cerr << "Error : " << strerror(errno) << endl;
return -1;
}
else
{
cout << "Directory created";
return 0;
}
}
return ret;
}
int main(int args, char **argv)
{
std::string strpath(argv[1]);
std::string delimeter = "/";
std::string substr1 = "";
int cnt = 0;
std::vector<string> strPaths;
std::string strbck = strpath;
for( int i = strpath.find(delimeter); i != std::string::npos; i = strpath.find(delimeter))
{
if(cnt > 0)
{
substr1 = strbck.substr(0, substr1.length() + i + 1);
strPaths.push_back(substr1);
}
strpath = strpath.substr(i +1,strpath.length());
cnt++;
}
strPaths.push_back(strbck);
std::string str;
for_each( strPaths.begin() ,strPaths.end() -1 , [](std::string str) {make_dir((char*)str.c_str());});
ofstream outfile;
std::ofstream file {strPaths[strPaths.size() -1].c_str() };
file << "hello"<< std::endl;
file.close();
return 0;
}