CreateDirectory function (winbase.h)

Article
08/03/2022

Creates a new directory. If the underlying file system supports security on files and directories, the function applies a specified security descriptor to the new directory.

To specify a template directory, use the CreateDirectoryEx function.

To perform this operation as a transacted operation, use the CreateDirectoryTransacted function.

Syntax

BOOL CreateDirectory(
  [in]           LPCTSTR               lpPathName,
  [in, optional] LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES lpSecurityAttributes
);

Parameters

[in] lpPathName

The path of the directory to be created.

For the ANSI version of this function, there is a default string size limit for paths of 248 characters (MAX_PATH - enough room for a 8.3 filename). To extend this limit to 32,767 wide characters, call the Unicode version of the function and prepend "\?" to the path. For more information, see Naming a File

Tip Starting with Windows 10, version 1607, for the unicode version of this function (CreateDirectoryW), you can opt-in to remove the 248 character limitation without prepending "\\?\". The 255 character limit per path segment still applies. See the "Maximum Path Length Limitation" section of Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces for details.

[in, optional] lpSecurityAttributes

A pointer to a SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES structure. The lpSecurityDescriptor member of the structure specifies a security descriptor for the new directory. If lpSecurityAttributes is NULL, the directory gets a default security descriptor. The ACLs in the default security descriptor for a directory are inherited from its parent directory.

The target file system must support security on files and directories for this parameter to have an effect. (This is indicated when GetVolumeInformation returns FS_PERSISTENT_ACLS.)

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is nonzero.

If the function fails, the return value is zero. To get extended error information, call GetLastError. Possible errors include the following.

Return code	Description
ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS	The specified directory already exists.
ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND	One or more intermediate directories do not exist; this function will only create the final directory in the path.

Remarks

Some file systems, such as the NTFS file system, support compression or encryption for individual files and directories. On volumes formatted for such a file system, a new directory inherits the compression and encryption attributes of its parent directory.

An application can obtain a handle to a directory by calling CreateFile with the FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS flag set. For a code example, see CreateFile.

To support inheritance functions that query the security descriptor of this object may heuristically determine and report that inheritance is in effect. See Automatic Propagation of Inheritable ACEs for more information.

In Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, this function is supported by the following technologies.

Technology	Supported
Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 protocol	Yes
SMB 3.0 Transparent Failover (TFO)	Yes
SMB 3.0 with Scale-out File Shares (SO)	Yes
Cluster Shared Volume File System (CsvFS)	Yes
Resilient File System (ReFS)	Yes

Examples

For an example, see Retrieving and Changing File Attributes.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows XP [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2003 [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	winbase.h (include Windows.h)
Library	Kernel32.lib
DLL	Kernel32.dll

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