RMDIR(2)RMDIR(2)NAMErmdir - remove a directory
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int rmdir(const char *path);
DESCRIPTION
The rmdir() function removes the directory named by the path name
pointed to by path. The directory must not have any entries other than
"." and "..".
If the directory's link count becomes zero and no process has the
directory open, the space occupied by the directory is freed and the
directory is no longer accessible. If one or more processes have the
directory open when the last link is removed, the "." and ".." entries,
if present, are removed before rmdir() returns and no new entries may
be created in the directory, but the directory is not removed until all
references to the directory have been closed.
Upon successful completion rmdir() marks for update the st_ctime and
st_mtime fields of the parent directory.
RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, 0 is returned. Otherwise, −1 is returned,
errno is set to indicate the error, and the named directory is not
changed.
ERRORS
The rmdir() function will fail if:
EACCES
Search permission is denied for a component of the path
prefix and {PRIV_FILE_DAC_SEARCH} is not asserted in
the effective set of the calling process
Write permission is denied on the directory containing
the directory to be removed and {PRIV_FILE_DAC_WRITE}
is not asserted.
The parent directory has the S_ISVTX variable set, is
not owned by the user, and {PRIV_FILE_OWNER} is not
asserted.
The directory is not owned by the user and is not
writable by the user.
EBUSY
The directory to be removed is the mount point for a
mounted file system.
EEXIST
The directory contains entries other than those for "."
and "..".
EFAULT
The path argument points to an illegal address.
EINVAL
The directory to be removed is the current directory,
or the final component of path is ".".
EILSEQ
The path argument includes non-UTF8 characters and the
file system accepts only file names where all charac‐
ters are part of the UTF-8 character codeset.
EIO
An I/O error occurred while accessing the file system.
ELOOP
Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating
path.
ENAMETOOLONG
The length of the path argument exceeds PATH_MAX, or
the length of a path component exceeds NAME_MAX while
_POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect.
ENOENT
The named directory does not exist or is the null path‐
name.
ENOLINK
The path argument points to a remote machine, and the
connection to that machine is no longer active.
ENOTDIR
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
EROFS
The directory entry to be removed is part of a read-
only file system.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌────────────────────┬───────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │ Standard │
├────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
│MT-Level │ Async-Signal-Safe │
└────────────────────┴───────────────────┘
SEE ALSOmkdir(1), rm(1), mkdir(2), attributes(5), privileges(5), standards(5)
May 18, 2007 RMDIR(2)
