rmdir(2) System Calls Manual rmdir(2)
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 al-
lowed, 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), un-
linkat(2)
Linux man-pages 6.9.1 2024-05-02 rmdir(2)
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