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If I try to run mkdir build to create a build directory, if the directory already exists, this error is thrown: A subdirectory or file build already exists.. I need to delete and overwrite this directory. What is the command for that?

valiano
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Shawn Mclean
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5 Answers5

13

You can delete the build directory with

rd /s /q build

or

if exist build rd /s /q build
Harry Johnston
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  • For best results, run this command twice. It will sometimes fail if, e.g., Windows Search happens to be indexing that directory at just the wrong time. – Harry Johnston May 14 '19 at 05:28
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I wanted to create directory only if it does not exist
If it exists, nothing to do

Below worked great in the bat file:

if not exist someDir1 mkdir someDir1
Manohar Reddy Poreddy
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2

I don't think it is possible to use the mkdir command to do that natively (though if you were will to do a bit more scripting, it would be possible).

A simple alternative is the following command in powershell:

New-Item path -type directory -force

Where path is something like C:\users\name\build

For more on New-Item see: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee176914.aspx

soandos
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0

You can try the rd command to remove the directory. You have to ensure the directory is empty first though.

Dave
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Henry
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This command can help:

mkdir -p a & rm -r a & mkdir a

This my answer in stackoverflow

Community
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Daniel Antonio Nuñez Carhuayo
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    Please read the question again carefully. Your answer does **not** answer the original question. OP is using Windows **not** Unix. – DavidPostill Aug 27 '16 at 07:16