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  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.

CONFORMING TO

   POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, 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)

COLOPHON

   This  page  is  part of release 4.09 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
   description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
   latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
   https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

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