RMDIR(2)                                            Linux Programmer's Manual                                           RMDIR(2)



NAME
       rmdir - delete a directory

SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>

       int rmdir(const char *pathname);

DESCRIPTION
       rmdir() deletes a directory, which must be empty.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS
       EACCES Write access to the directory containing pathname was not allowed, or one of the directories in the path prefix of
              pathname did not allow search permission.  (See also path_resolution(7).

       EBUSY  pathname is currently in use by the system or some process that prevents its removal.  On Linux this  means  path-
              name is currently used as a mount point or is the root directory of the calling process.

       EFAULT pathname points outside your accessible address space.

       EINVAL pathname has .  as last component.

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving pathname.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              pathname was too long.

       ENOENT A directory component in pathname does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link.

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

       ENOTDIR
              pathname, or a component used as a directory in pathname, is not, in fact, a directory.

       ENOTEMPTY
              pathname  contains  entries  other than . and .. ; or, pathname has ..  as its final component.  POSIX.1-2001 also
              allows EEXIST for this condition.

       EPERM  The directory containing pathname has the sticky bit (S_ISVTX) set and the process's effective user ID is  neither
              the  user  ID of the file to be deleted nor that of the directory containing it, and the process is not privileged
              (Linux: does not have the CAP_FOWNER capability).

       EPERM  The file system containing pathname does not support the removal of directories.

       EROFS  pathname refers to a directory on a read-only file system.

CONFORMING TO
       SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

BUGS
       Infelicities in the protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected disappearance of directories which are  still  being
       used.

SEE ALSO
       rm(1), rmdir(1), chdir(2), chmod(2), mkdir(2), rename(2), unlink(2), unlinkat(2)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.25 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, and information about
       reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux                                                      2008-05-08                                                   RMDIR(2)