Opening a new file whose parent directory doesn't exist yet

Question

When opening a new file whose parent directory doesn't exist yet, I either open a shell window, or an Emacs shell buffer, and then mkdir the directory in it. I find this cumbersome. Is there an easier way?

Answer 1

You don't need to do that, if that's your question.

C-x C-f /some/new/directory/newfile.txt

Emacs prints a message to let you know that the directory /some/new/directory/ does not yet exist: Use M-x make-directory RET RET to create the directory and its parents.

Insert text into the new buffer for new file newfile.txt.

C-x C-s to save the file.

Emacs asks you whether you want to create the missing intermediate directories (e.g., new/directory/. You hit y for "yes".

Not very cumbersome, IMO. The UI needs to ask you for confirmation, because you could easily have mistyped the name of an existing directory.

Answer 2

For ido users

• Do C-x C-f (which should call ido-find-file) and enter a non-existent path.
• Press M-m (mnemonic for make new dir?). Hit RET.
• Continue with typing the new file name that you want to create in that new dir. Hit RET.

Answer 3

When in this situation, emacs should have told you something like:

use M-x make-directory RET RET to create the directory and its parents

Is it cumbersome?

I'll say, yes it is.

Answer 4

If you really want to make find-file to automatically create parent directories when not already exists, you can do the following in your init file.

(defun my-find-file (orig-fun &rest args)
  (let* ((filename (car args))
         (directory (file-name-directory filename)))
    (if (not (file-directory-p directory))
        (make-directory directory t))
    (apply orig-fun args)))

(advice-add 'find-file :around 'my-find-file)

After all, Emacs was designed to be extensible and customizable.

Reference:

• Advising Named Functions

• Advice combinators

• File Name Components

• Kinds of Files

• Create/Delete Dirs