Mkdir error, Permission denied

Question

Hi guys my code is as follows:

    #!/bin/bash

echo "What directory?"
read $dir

mkdir -p "$dir"/Air/Output
mkdir -p "$dir"/Oxy/Output

echo "done"

im getting the error "permission denied" Is it a problem

Answer 1

You should read dir , not read $dir .

With read $dir , your variable will not be set and with an empty dir variable, you attempt to create a directory from root /Air/Output which cause the permission denied.

As sjsam suggest, you may also add a prompt to read with its -p option :

read -p "What directory?" dir