s c h e m a t i c s : c o o k b o o k

This Web

Other Webs

Schematics

RSS

Scheme Links

Making A Directory If It Doesn't Already Exist

Problem

You want to create a directory only if it doesn't already exist.

Solution

Use make-directory* from the file.ss module in Mzlib. For example:

> (require (lib "file.ss"))
> (directory-exists? "foo") ; show the directory doesn't exist
#f
> (make-directory* "foo")   ; create the directory
> (directory-exists? "foo") ; show the directory exists
#t
> (make-directory* "foo")   ; no error is raised if the directory already exists

Discussion

The function make-directory* will make all the directories specified by it's argument that don't already exist. So to create the directory tree "foo/bar" (if it doesn't already exist) you could call make-directory* like so:

> (make-directory* "foo/bar")

If you wanted to ensure that only one directory was created, not an entire tree, you could build your own function on top of make-directory. The function make-directory raises an exception if the directory already exists so you have to check for the directory before you attempt to create it. The function maybe-make-directory does this:

(define (maybe-make-directory directory)
  (unless (directory-exists? directory)
      (make-directory directory)))

Comments about this recipe

Contributors

-- NoelWelsh - 18 May 2004

-- DaveHerman - 22 Feb 2005