CreateDirectory

CreateDirectory

The CreateDirectory function 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. Note that CreateDirectory does not have a template parameter, while CreateDirectoryEx does.

BOOL CreateDirectory(

LPCTSTR lpPathName,	// pointer to a directory path string
LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES lpSecurityAttributes	// pointer to a security descriptor
);

Parameters

lpPathName

Points to a null-terminated string that specifies the path of the directory to be created.

There is a default string size limit for paths of MAX_PATH characters. This limit is related to how the CreateDirectory function parses paths.

Windows NT: An application can transcend this limit and send in paths longer than MAX_PATH characters by calling the wide (W) version of CreateDirectory and prepending "\\?\" to the path. The "\\?\" tells the function to turn off path parsing; it lets paths longer than MAX_PATH be used with CreateDirectoryW. This also works with UNC names. The "\\?\" is ignored as part of the path. For example, "\\?\C:\myworld\private" is seen as "C:\myworld\private", and "\\?\UNC\bill_g_1\hotstuff\coolapps" is seen as "\\bill_g_1\hotstuff\coolapps".

lpSecurityAttributes

Pointer to a SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES structure that determines whether the returned handle can be inherited by child processes. If lpSecurityAttributes is NULL, the handle cannot be inherited.

Windows NT: 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 target file system must support security on files and directories for this parameter to have an effect.

Windows 95: The lpSecurityDescriptor member of the structure is ignored.

Return Values

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.

Remarks

Windows NT: Some file systems, such as NTFS, support compression for individual files and directories. On volumes formatted for such a file system, a new directory inherits the compression attribute of its parent directory.

Windows NT: 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.