Creating and Naming Directories

• Conventions for naming directories

• Security when creating directories

• Creating directories in your current working directory

• Creating directories in another group

Conventions for naming directories

Directory names follow the same rules as file names. Directory names can include the special characters - (hyphen), _ (underscore), and . (dot); they can be uppercase, lowercase, or a combination of the two. The maximum name length for a directory created in the root directory, an MPE group, or an account is 16 characters. Hierarchical directories can contain names that are up to 255 characters long. They cannot begin with a - (hyphen).

The file names dot (.) and dot-dot (..) have special meaning. Dot (.) is the identity function, or shorthand for the directory itself, wherever that directory is. For example:

   /A/B/./C

The . entry does not refer to the CWD, but to the B directory, since that is the location you are at in the path.

A leading dot meaning the CWD is a result of the fact that a non-absolute name is a relative name (relative names are always relative to the CWD), therefore, the leading dot names the CWD.

The name dot-dot refers to thedirectory that is the next level up, also called the parent directory.

Refer to Tables 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3 in Chapter 2 for additional naming restrictions.

Security when creating directories

You can create directories in any directory, group, or account to which you have CD access.

You must have the following privileges to create directories:

Access to directories is controlled by ACDs. Refer to Chapter 9 for information on using ACDs to change directory access.

Creating directories in your current working directory

To create a directory in your current working directory:

For example:

   :NEWDIR CPROGS

This command creates a directory called CPROGS in the directory in which you are currently working.

If you typed the name in lowercase and did not preface it with a ./ or /, MPE/iX converts it to uppercase:

   :NEWDIR cprogs

MPE creates a directory called CPROGS in your current working directory. Note that because of the upshifting that occurs, executing this command has the same result as executing the command with CPROGS in uppercase.

If you want to use HFS syntax for naming a directory, you need to preface the name with ./ or /. For example, to create a directory with a lowercase name:

   :NEWDIR ./cprogs

This example creates the directory cprogs in your current working directory.

Creating directories in another group

To create a directory in a group other than your logon group, use the full pathname of the directory in the NEWDIR command line.

For example, if you have TD access to /PRG/BOB and CD access to BOB on your system, you can type the following command:

   :NEWDIR /PRG/BOB/cprogs

This command creates a new directory called cprogs in the group called BOB in the PRG account.

If you try to create a directory in a directory that you don't have CD access to, you receive a message telling you that you need CD permission to create new directories.