rmdir - delete a directory
Standard C library (
libc,
-lc)
#include <unistd.h>
int rmdir(const char *pathname);
rmdir() deletes a directory, which must be empty.
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and
errno is set
to indicate the error.
- 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.
POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, SVr4, 4.3BSD.
Infelicities in the protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected
disappearance of directories which are still being used.
rm(1),
rmdir(1),
chdir(2),
chmod(2),
mkdir(2),
rename(2),
unlink(2),
unlinkat(2)