NAME

       rmdir - delete a directory

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

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 to indicate the error.

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  pathname  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 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 filesystem containing pathname does not support the removal of directories.

       EROFS  pathname refers to a directory on a read-only filesystem.

STANDARDS

       POSIX.1-2008.

HISTORY

       POSIX.1-2001, SVr4, 4.3BSD.

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)