mkdir issue in bash script

Question

I am trying to create a folder tree using the mkdir command, which is supposed to have the following structure:

rootfs
├── Fol1
│   ├── Fol11
│   └── Fol12
└── Fol2

I sucessfully created this tree using

mkdir -p /rootfs/{Fol1/{Fol11,Fol12},Fol2}

However the folder rootfs is supposed to be variable, which is why I tried

ROOT=/rootfs
FOLDERTREE=/{Fol1/{Fol11,Fol12},Fol2}
mkdir -p "$ROOT$FILETREE"

Although echo "$ROOT$FILETREE" yields exactly /rootfs/{Fol1/{Fol11,Fol12},Fol2} I do get a wrong filetree

rootfs
└── {Fol1
    └── {Fol11,Fol12},Fol2}

What am I doing wrong here ?

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-27 07:19:39Z

5

Braces are not processed in the result of variable substitution. Use:

mkdir -p "$ROOT"/{Fol1/{Fol11,Fol12},Fol2}

answered Aug 27, 2015 at 7:19

Barmar

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Comments

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-27 07:24:02Z

4

You can use BASH array to keep all the directory paths as:

dirs=( "${ROOT}"/{Fol1/{Fol11,Fol12},Fol2} )

Then create it as:

mkdir -p "${dirs[@]}"

answered Aug 27, 2015 at 7:24

anubhava

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