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.
See Also