Re: mkdir typo

[Jim Meyering]

Stephen Leaf <address@hidden> wrote:
> Typo:
> mkdir: cannot create directory `a': File exists
>
> Shouldn't it say 'Directory exists'?

Ideally, that's what it would say when `a' is a directory.
What it means is that the existence of some `file system object'
caused mkdir to fail.  Sometimes we use `file' that way.

When the mkdir syscall fails, it sets errno to EEXIST,
which (via strerror) is usually rendered in English as `File exists'.