Mkdir on a afp share - file exists ???

Question

Can anyone explain why this happens and if there is a way round it?
For example:
mkdir -m 700 /Volumes/MacHomes/$username
returns "File Exists"
Thanks

Answer 1

Assuming $username exists, and not an empty variable, then you get that error if /Volumes/MacHomes/$username really does exist.
If $username does not have a value in the variable, then you are trying to create /Volumes/MacHomes which already exists.
If $username does have a value, and the error is being reported because some of the /Volumes/MacHomes/xyz directories already exist and you wish to ignore this fact, then you can use
mkdir -p -m 700 /Volumes/MacHomes/$username
Or you can test to see if the directory already exists
if [[ ! -d /Volumes/MacHomes/$username ]]; then
mkdir -m 700 /Volumes/MacHomes/$username
fi
then the question comes up, are you creating all 500 at one time, if so, have you figured out how to handle ownership issues? That is to say the process creating the directory is going to own the directory, so do you also have code to change the owner to the user that will be using the directory? Just asking.