Parent dirs don't exist, enable 'mkparents' for auto creatio

Error message

Parent dirs don't exist, enable 'mkparents' for auto creation

What it means

Thrown by buffer save when the leading directory of the absolute target path does not exist (os.Stat(dirname) returns fs.ErrNotExist) and the 'mkparents' setting is false. Micro deliberately refuses to silently create missing parent directories unless the user opted in via mkparents.

Source

Thrown at internal/buffer/save.go:300

	if err == nil && !fileInfo.Mode().IsRegular() {
		return errors.New("Error: " + filename + " is not a regular file and cannot be saved")
	}

	absFilename := util.ResolvePath(filename)

	// Get the leading path to the file | "." is returned if there's no leading path provided
	if dirname := filepath.Dir(absFilename); dirname != "." {
		// Check if the parent dirs don't exist
		if _, statErr := os.Stat(dirname); errors.Is(statErr, fs.ErrNotExist) {
			// Prompt to make sure they want to create the dirs that are missing
			if b.Settings["mkparents"].(bool) {
				// Create all leading dir(s) since they don't exist
				if mkdirallErr := os.MkdirAll(dirname, os.ModePerm); mkdirallErr != nil {
					// If there was an error creating the dirs
					return mkdirallErr
				}
			} else {
				return errors.New("Parent dirs don't exist, enable 'mkparents' for auto creation")
			}
		}
	}

	saveResponseChan := make(chan saveResponse)
	saveRequestChan <- saveRequest{b, absFilename, withSudo, newFile, saveResponseChan}
	result := <-saveResponseChan
	err = result.err
	if err != nil {
		if errors.Is(err, util.ErrOverwrite) {
			screen.TermMessage(err)
			err = errors.Unwrap(err)

			b.UpdateModTime()
		}
		return err
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 1c8b82b32e)

Solutions

Enable the option: run `set mkparents true` (persist by adding "mkparents": true to settings.json), then retry the save.
Or create the directory yourself first: mkdir -p <parent-dir>, then save again.
Or fix the typo in the path — check each directory component with ls.
If embedding micro, set the mkparents buffer/global setting programmatically before SaveAs.

Example fix

// before (~/.config/micro/settings.json):
{ "mkparents": false }
// save as newdir/file.go -> error

// after:
{ "mkparents": true }
// save as newdir/file.go -> parents created, save succeeds

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

func ensureParentDir(path string, mkparents bool) error {
    dir := filepath.Dir(util.ResolvePath(path))
    if dir == "." {
        return nil
    }
    if _, err := os.Stat(dir); errors.Is(err, fs.ErrNotExist) {
        if !mkparents {
            return os.MkdirAll(dir, 0o755) // or surface a prompt to the user
        }
    }
    return nil
}
// run before buf.SaveAs(path)

Try / catch

if err := buf.Save(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "enable 'mkparents'") {
        _ = config.SetGlobalOption("mkparents", true)
        // user re-triggers save, or call buf.Save() again
    }
}

Prevention

Set "mkparents": true once in settings.json if you regularly create new directory trees from the editor.
Alternatively mkdir -p the target tree from your shell before saving into it.
Double-check directory components for typos before hitting enter on SaveAs.

When it happens

Trigger: SaveAs to 'newproj/src/main.go' when 'newproj/src' does not exist, with the mkparents option left at its default false. The check runs in internal/buffer/save.go:300 right after util.ResolvePath/filepath.Dir computes the parent; any missing intermediate directory triggers it.

Common situations: Starting a new project layout from inside micro, saving into a not-yet-cloned repo path, or a typo in a directory component ('~/Documnets/file.txt'). Users coming from editors that auto-create directories hit this most.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of micro-editor/micro@1c8b82b32e (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b2995d16c294f8da. Report an issue: GitHub.