ssh-keygen -f confusion

While trying to create rsa keypairs for a project inside the project dir I was experimenting with ssh-keygen's -f option. When I test it in a freshly created directory everything works as expected, but when I try to use the exact same syntax on another equally permissioned directory ssh-keygen just keeps telling me No such file or directory.

In a way it is right saying so, because it is supposed to create these files. (The directory in which it shall work exists.)

The syntax I use for key creation is:

ssh-keygen -q -t rsa -f /abspath/id_rsa -N ""

I am not able to recreate this problem unless I specify a directory that does not actually exist. I suggest that you look at where you're trying to create the key pair, making sure that the directory exist.