Linux mcd Command with Practical Examples

Introduction

In this lab, you will learn about the Linux mcd command, which stands for "make and change directory". The mcd command allows you to create a new directory and change the current working directory to the newly created directory in a single command. You will explore how to use mcd to efficiently create nested directories and combine it with other Linux commands for advanced file and directory operations.

The lab covers the following steps:

1. Understand the mcd command
2. Create nested directories with mcd
3. Combine mcd with other Linux commands

Linux Commands Cheat Sheet

Skills Graph

Understand the mcd Command

In this step, you will learn about the mcd command in Linux, which stands for "make and change directory". The mcd command allows you to create a new directory and change the current working directory to the newly created directory in a single command.

To use the mcd command, simply provide the path of the directory you want to create. For example, to create a new directory named "example" in the current working directory, you can run:

mcd example

This will create the "example" directory and change the current working directory to it.

Example output:

labex@ubuntu:~/project$ mcd example
labex@ubuntu:~/project/example$

The mcd command is particularly useful when you need to create a series of nested directories. Instead of running multiple mkdir commands, you can use mcd to create the directories and navigate to the desired location in a single step.

For example, to create the directory structure ~/project/example/subdir1/subdir2, you can run:

mcd project/example/subdir1/subdir2

This will create all the necessary directories and change the current working directory to ~/project/example/subdir1/subdir2.

Example output:

labex@ubuntu:~/project$ mcd project/example/subdir1/subdir2
labex@ubuntu:~/project/example/subdir1/subdir2$

The mcd command is a convenient tool for efficient directory management in Linux. In the next step, you will learn how to combine mcd with other Linux commands for more advanced file and directory operations.

Create Nested Directories with mcd

In this step, you will learn how to use the mcd command to create a series of nested directories efficiently.

Let's start by creating a new directory structure with multiple levels of subdirectories:

mcd project/docs/guides/linux

This single mcd command will create the following directory structure:

• ~/project/
  • docs/
    • guides/
      • linux/

Example output:

labex@ubuntu:~/project$ mcd project/docs/guides/linux
labex@ubuntu:~/project/docs/guides/linux$

As you can see, the mcd command has created all the necessary directories and changed the current working directory to the deepest level, ~/project/docs/guides/linux.

Now, let's create another nested directory structure:

mcd ../../python

This mcd command will create the python directory at the same level as the linux directory, and change the current working directory to it.

Example output:

labex@ubuntu:~/project/docs/guides/linux$ mcd ../../python
labex@ubuntu:~/project/docs/guides/python$

The directory structure now looks like this:

• ~/project/
  • docs/
    • guides/
      • linux/
      • python/

The mcd command makes it easy to create complex directory structures without having to run multiple mkdir commands. This can save you time and effort, especially when working on large projects with a lot of directories.

Combine mcd with Other Linux Commands

In this final step, you will learn how to combine the mcd command with other Linux commands to perform more advanced file and directory operations.

One common use case is to create a new file directly within a nested directory using mcd. For example, let's create a new file named "example.txt" in the ~/project/docs/guides/python directory:

mcd project/docs/guides/python && touch example.txt

This command first uses mcd to navigate to the ~/project/docs/guides/python directory, and then uses the touch command to create a new file named "example.txt" in that directory.

Example output:

labex@ubuntu:~/project$ mcd project/docs/guides/python && touch example.txt
labex@ubuntu:~/project/docs/guides/python$

You can also combine mcd with other commands like ls, cat, vim, and so on, to perform various file and directory operations within the newly created directories.

For instance, to create a new directory, navigate to it, and then create a file within that directory, you can use:

mcd project/docs/guides/java && mkdir example && cd example && touch file.txt

This command will:

1. Create the java directory inside ~/project/docs/guides/
2. Change the current working directory to ~/project/docs/guides/java
3. Create a new directory named example
4. Change the current working directory to ~/project/docs/guides/java/example
5. Create a new file named file.txt

Example output:

labex@ubuntu:~/project$ mcd project/docs/guides/java && mkdir example && cd example && touch file.txt
labex@ubuntu:~/project/docs/guides/java/example$

By combining mcd with other Linux commands, you can streamline your file and directory management tasks, making your workflow more efficient and productive.

Summary

In this lab, you learned about the mcd command in Linux, which stands for "make and change directory". The mcd command allows you to create a new directory and change the current working directory to the newly created directory in a single command. You also learned how to use mcd to create a series of nested directories efficiently, which is particularly useful when you need to organize your files and directories in a hierarchical structure.

Additionally, you discovered how to combine mcd with other Linux commands for more advanced file and directory operations, enabling you to streamline your workflow and improve your productivity in the terminal.

Linux Commands Cheat Sheet