Emacs: Create directory before saving

Creating a new file in Emacs is as easy as opening it. If you ask Emacs to open a file which doesn’t exist, it won’t complain; It will open up a blank buffer pointing at it. It will even let you open a file in a directory that doesn’t exist (yet).

If you do this, Emacs will let you know, by displaying this message:

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

Which is handy… but wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t even have to do that? This being Emacs, we don’t.

(add-hook 'before-save-hook
          '(lambda ()
             (or (file-exists-p (file-name-directory buffer-file-name))
                 (make-directory (file-name-directory buffer-file-name) t))))

If you add that to your .emacs, you won’t have to. When you save your buffer, Emacs will check to see if the path exists. If it doesn’t, it will create it for you, including any parent directories.

2008/12/11
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Discussion

That’s a good one, that probably belongs on the Emacs Wiki, if it isn’t there already.

I suppose the only problem is if a typo had made the new directory. That’s avoidable as long as you pay attention for the message “Use M-x make-directory RET RET to create the directory and its parents”

aaron
2008/12/11

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