A Unix directory is a file containing a correspondence between filenames and inodes. A directory is a special file that the kernel maintains. Only kernel modifies directories, but processes can read directories. The contents of a directory are a list of filename and inode number pairs. When new directories are created, the kernel makes two entries named '.' (refers to the directory itself) and '..' (refers to parent directory).

The system call for creating a directory is mkdir (pathname, mode).