RMDIR(3)                   POSIX Programmer's Manual                  RMDIR(3)



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

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.1-2017, Section 4.3, 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 aa 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//ddoott 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.1-2017, Section 4.3, Directory
       Protection, <unistd.h>

COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology --
       Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the
       Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open
       Group.  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.opengroup.org/unix/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 .



IEEE/The Open Group                  2017                             RMDIR(3)
