mkdir with icon

Question

I am making a file sync program and have pretty much finished except for one remaining problem.

Is there a different command or argument to pass to mkdir or cp that will let my program both create a new directory and set the icon of that folder? (perhaps some arguments to pass to mkdir?)

I have achieved a similar outcome before with cp -pR, but that will also copy every file on the path, so it only works if I am syncing something for the first time.

How can I set the icon of a newly created directory (via the terminal) without also copying every file of that directory?

Answer 1

The mkdir command itself has no option to do this.

If cp -pR copies an existing directory's icon, that implies that the icon is stored in a file in the directory; the cp command has no concept of icons, but apparently copying that file caused the icon to be associated with the hew directory. (EDIT: I had left out the word "no", which is quite important.)

So find out how your operating system represents icons for directories (probably as a "hidden" file whose name starts with .) and create or copy such a file into the newly created directory.

If you'll update your question and tell is what operating system you're using, somebody can probably tell you how to do this.