Create a folder if it doesn't already exist

I've run into a few cases with WordPress installs with Bluehost where I've encountered errors with my WordPress theme because the uploads folder wp-content/uploads was not present.

Apparently the Bluehost cPanel WordPress installer does not create this folder, though HostGator does.

So I need to add code to my theme that checks for the folder and creates it otherwise.

Try this, using mkdir:

if (!file_exists('path/to/directory')) {
    mkdir('path/to/directory', 0777, true);
}

Note that 0777 is already the default mode for directories and may still be modified by the current umask.

Here is the missing piece. You need to pass 'recursive' flag as third argument (boolean true) in mkdir call like this:

mkdir('path/to/directory', 0755, true);

Here is something a bit more universal since this comes up on Google. While the details are more specific, the title of this question is more universal.

/**
 * recursively create a long directory path
 */
function createPath($path) {
    if (is_dir($path)) 
        return true;
    $prev_path = substr($path, 0, strrpos($path, '/', -2) + 1 );
    $return = createPath($prev_path);
    return ($return && is_writable($prev_path)) ? mkdir($path) : false;
}

This will take a path, possibly with a long chain of uncreated directories, and keep going up one directory until it gets to an existing directory. Then it will attempt to create the next directory in that directory, and continue till it's created all the directories. It returns true if successful.

It could be improved by providing a stopping level so it just fails if it goes beyond the user folder or something and by including permissions.

Use a helper function like this:

function makeDir($path)
{
     $ret = mkdir($path); // use @mkdir if you want to suppress warnings/errors
     return $ret === true || is_dir($path);
}

It will return true if the directory was successfully created or already exists, and false if the directory couldn't be created.

A better alternative is this (shouldn't give any warnings):

function makeDir($path)
{
     return is_dir($path) || mkdir($path);
}

Create a folder if it doesn't already exist

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