PROLOG

       This  manual  page  is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of
       this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux  manual  page  for  details  of
       Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME

       rmdir — remove a directory

SYNOPSIS

       #include <unistd.h>

       int rmdir(const char *path);

DESCRIPTION

       The  rmdir() function shall remove a directory whose name is given by path.  The directory
       shall be removed only if it is an empty directory.

       If the directory is the root directory or the current working directory of any process, it
       is  unspecified  whether  the function succeeds, or whether it shall fail and set errno to
       [EBUSY].

       If path names a symbolic link, then rmdir() shall fail and set errno to [ENOTDIR].

       If the path argument refers to a path whose final component  is  either  dot  or  dot-dot,
       rmdir() shall fail.

       If  the  directory's link count becomes 0 and no process has the directory open, the space
       occupied by the directory shall be freed and the directory shall no longer be  accessible.
       If  one  or  more processes have the directory open when the last link is removed, the dot
       and dot-dot entries, if present, shall be  removed  before  rmdir()  returns  and  no  new
       entries  may be created in the directory, but the directory shall not be removed until all
       references to the directory are closed.

       If the directory is not an empty directory, rmdir() shall fail and set errno  to  [EEXIST]
       or [ENOTEMPTY].

       Upon  successful  completion, rmdir() shall mark for update the last data modification and
       last file status change timestamps of the parent directory.

RETURN VALUE

       Upon successful completion, the function rmdir() shall return 0. Otherwise,  −1  shall  be
       returned,  and  errno  set  to  indicate the error. If −1 is returned, the named directory
       shall not be changed.

ERRORS

       The rmdir() function shall fail if:

       EACCES Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix, or write  permission
              is denied on the parent directory of the directory to be removed.

       EBUSY  The  directory  to be removed is currently in use by the system or some process and
              the implementation considers this to be an error.

       [EEXIST] or [ENOTEMPTY]
                   The path argument names a directory that is not an empty directory,  or  there
                   are hard links to the directory other than dot or a single entry in dot-dot.

       EINVAL      The path argument contains a last component that is dot.

       EIO         A physical I/O error has occurred.

       ELOOP       A  loop  exists  in  symbolic  links encountered during resolution of the path
                   argument.

       ENAMETOOLONG
                   The length of a component of a pathname is longer than {NAME_MAX}.

       ENOENT      A component of path does not name an existing file, or the path argument names
                   a nonexistent directory or points to an empty string.

       ENOTDIR     A  component  of path names an existing file that is neither a directory nor a
                   symbolic link to a directory.

       [EPERM] or [EACCES]
                   The S_ISVTX flag is set on the directory containing the file  referred  to  by
                   the  path  argument and the process does not satisfy the criteria specified in
                   the  Base  Definitions  volume  of  POSIX.1‐2008,   Section   4.2,   Directory
                   Protection.

       EROFS       The directory entry to be removed resides on a read-only file system.

       The rmdir() function may fail if:

       ELOOP  More  than  {SYMLOOP_MAX}  symbolic links were encountered during resolution of the
              path argument.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              The length of a pathname exceeds {PATH_MAX}, or pathname resolution of  a  symbolic
              link produced an intermediate result with a length that exceeds {PATH_MAX}.

       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES

   Removing a Directory
       The following example shows how to remove a directory named /home/cnd/mod1.

           #include <unistd.h>

           int status;
           ...
           status = rmdir("/home/cnd/mod1");

APPLICATION USAGE

       None.

RATIONALE

       The  rmdir()  and  rename() functions originated in 4.2 BSD, and they used [ENOTEMPTY] for
       the condition when the directory to be removed does not exist or new already exists.  When
       the  1984  /usr/group  standard  was  published, it contained [EEXIST] instead. When these
       functions were adopted into  System  V,  the  1984  /usr/group  standard  was  used  as  a
       reference.  Therefore,  several existing applications and implementations support/use both
       forms, and no agreement could be reached on either value. All implementations are required
       to  supply  both  [EEXIST]  and  [ENOTEMPTY]  in  <errno.h>  with distinct values, so that
       applications can use both values in C-language case statements.

       The meaning of deleting pathname/dot is unclear, because the name of the file  (directory)
       in  the  parent  directory  to  be  removed  is not clear, particularly in the presence of
       multiple links to a directory.

       The POSIX.1‐1990 standard was silent with regard to the behavior of rmdir() when there are
       multiple  hard  links  to  the  directory  being  removed. The requirement to set errno to
       [EEXIST] or [ENOTEMPTY] clarifies the behavior in this case.

       If the current working directory of the process  is  being  removed,  that  should  be  an
       allowed error.

       Virtually all existing implementations detect [ENOTEMPTY] or the case of dot-dot. The text
       in Section 2.3, Error Numbers about returning any one of the possible errors permits  that
       behavior  to  continue.  The  [ELOOP]  error  may  be  returned if more than {SYMLOOP_MAX}
       symbolic links are encountered during resolution of the path argument.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       Section 2.3, Error Numbers, mkdir(), remove(), rename(), unlink()

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 4.2, Directory Protection, <unistd.h>

COPYRIGHT

       Portions of this text are reprinted and  reproduced  in  electronic  form  from  IEEE  Std
       1003.1,  2013  Edition,  Standard  for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System
       Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013  by  the
       Institute  of  Electrical  and  Electronics  Engineers,  Inc and The Open Group.  (This is
       POSIX.1-2008 with the  2013  Technical  Corrigendum  1  applied.)  In  the  event  of  any
       discrepancy  between  this  version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the
       original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The  original  Standard
       can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html .

       Any  typographical  or  formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have
       been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page  format.  To  report
       such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .