CompTIA Linux+ XK0-006 (V8) Practice Question

The mkdir command with the -p option creates any missing parent directories and suppresses errors if they already exist. The -m option sets the mode (permissions). When used together, the specified mode is applied only to the final directory named on the command line. Parent directories created with -p receive default permissions based on the current umask (0755 in this scenario). Therefore, mkdir -p -m 2775 /srv/git/repos/clientX/app1 correctly creates the entire path, sets the mode of app1 to 2775 (including the required setgid bit), and leaves the parent directories with the default 0755 permissions.

• Attempting to use umask to set permissions before running mkdir -p would not apply the special setgid bit and would result in incorrect permissions.
• Running mkdir with -m but without -p would fail if any parent directories in the path do not already exist.
• The install -d command also creates parent directories, but it applies the mode specified with -m to every new directory it creates, not just the final one. This would incorrectly change the permissions of the intermediate directories.