Creating Folders

Probably a dumb question here, but how do you create a folder INSIDE of another folder. Everytime I try, the folder always ends up at the root of the drive. Is this possible?

Thanks

Do you want the command line directions or GUI?

or mkdir foldername from the command line

Hmm, tried cmd (the apple key), shift and N and it just creates a folder at the root like it was before. Is there a setting I need to make somewhere?

And yes Gator, that is the situation I am in.. List view, with the drop-down arrows....

Originally posted by MacAddikt@Mar 3 2003, 10:51 PM
or mkdir foldername from the command line

Click to expand...

Actually, it would be mkdir -p /path/to/enclosingdir/newdir in order to create a new nested directory in one step. (Either that or he would have to cd to the enclosing directory first, and then create the directory with the mkdir command.

Originally posted by Emrys@Mar 3 2003, 11:00 PM
Hmm, tried cmd (the apple key), shift and N and it just creates a folder at the root like it was before. Is there a setting I need to make somewhere?

And yes Gator, that is the situation I am in.. List view, with the drop-down arrows....

Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't test before posting. I just wrote what would make sense. However, Apple's OSes are nonsensical in this regard. In both OS X and Classic iterations of the Mac OS, this has been the behavior. In list view with drop down arrows, the outermost enclosing view is the target of new directories. you would have to double click on a directory in order to make it the Finder recognize the new intended enclosing directory. While not strictly a bug, it is disconcerting and counter-intuitive behavior.

On the subject of creating a directory....
I need to make a folder inside the Library folder for system purposes. I am the admin to this computer and no one else uses it.
I need to create a folder beginning with a period .folder for example. It won't let me create it, says folder names like that are reserved for system purposes. Well, duh, that's what this folder is for.

I tried using ScriptGUI and wrote out the command
mkdir ~/library/.foldername
when I ran the script it says folder exists but I don't see it. Is it hidden? Or is it just BS'ing me? I need to drop a .plist into it but can't find the folder.

Any suggestions?

Anything beginning with a "." will be hidden. It does exist, you just won't see it in finder.

schweb said:

Anything beginning with a "." will be hidden. It does exist, you just won't see it in finder.

Click to expand...

So you're saying I can't access it at all? How then, can I get a file into it?

Okay, here is what you can do.

You need to run terminal application. it will bring up a terminal shell window. In that window move to the directory you created by doing some like the following:

cd ~/library/.foldername

I assume you can see the file you want in the new directory/folder in gui window. If you can do this.

First in the terminal window enter cp followed by a space. Then drag and drop the file you want on the terminal window. Next enter a space followed by a period, then hit the return key.

You shoud see something like the following.

cp the_path_of_the_location_of_.plist_file .

The above command shoud cp the file into the diecotry/folder you created. Do an ls -l to verify that the file was copied into the folder.