Question

Is there a way to create folder tree in emacs – similar to

mkdir -p

in bash?

Basically – I want emacs to create all the intemediate dirs – if they were not existing – when I save a file.

Answer 1

Function make-directory does that. Your particular problem may be solved like this:

(add-hook 'before-save-hook
          (lambda ()
            (when buffer-file-name
              (let ((dir (file-name-directory buffer-file-name)))
                (when (and (not (file-exists-p dir))
                           (y-or-n-p (format "Directory %s does not exist. Create it?" dir)))
                  (make-directory dir t))))))