mkdir -p [directory to create] : What does "-p" stand for ?

This works only in Linux and Mac if I remember correctly and allows you to create the directory and intermediate directories between your current position and the target directory using single console command instead of two or more. So let's say you want to have a directory with a path /documents/priority/tests/ - if you don't have that whole structure already in place, normally you would have to do it in three stages: mkdir documents & cd documents, mkdir priority & cd priority and finally mkdir test. With -p you can do it in one line: mkdir -p documents/priority/tests and it will create the whole directory tree if any parts of it are missing. If you try doing this without the -p and some of the directories in between do not exist, this will fail (or at least should :) ).