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 .

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