rmdir(2) [linux man page]

RMDIR(2)						     Linux Programmer's Manual							  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.1-2001 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 file system containing pathname does not support the removal of directories.

       EROFS  pathname refers to a directory on a read-only file system.

CONFORMING TO

       SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

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 3.27 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs,  can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux								    2008-05-08								  RMDIR(2)

Check Out this Related Man Page

REMOVE(3)								GNU								 REMOVE(3)

NAME

       remove - delete a name and possibly the file it refers to

SYNOPSIS

       #include <stdio.h>

       int remove(const char *pathname);

DESCRIPTION

       remove deletes a name from the filesystem.  It calls unlink for files, and rmdir for directories.

       If  the removed name was the last link to a file and no processes have the file open the file is deleted and the space it was using is made
       available for reuse.

       If the name was the last link to a file but any processes still have the file open the file will remain in existence until  the	last  file
       descriptor referring to it is closed.

       If the name referred to a symbolic link the link is removed.

       If  the	name  referred to a socket, fifo or device the name for it is removed but processes which have the object open may continue to use
       it.

RETURN VALUE

       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

       EFAULT pathname points outside your accessible address space.

       EACCES Write access to the directory containing pathname is not allowed for the process's effective uid, or one of the directories in path-
	      name did not allow search (execute) permission.

       EPERM  The directory containing pathname has the sticky-bit (S_ISVTX) set and the process's effective uid is neither the uid of the file to
	      be deleted nor that of the directory containing it.

       ENAMETOOLONG
	      pathname was too long.

       ENOENT A directory component in pathname does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link.

       ENOTDIR
	      A component used as a directory in pathname is not, in fact, a directory.

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

       EROFS  pathname refers to a file on a read-only filesystem.

CONFORMING TO

       ANSI C, SVID, AT&T, POSIX, X/OPEN, BSD 4.3

BUGS

       Infelicities in the protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected disappearance of files which are still being used.

NOTE

       Under libc4 and libc5, remove was an alias for unlink (and hence would not remove directories).

SEE ALSO

       unlink(2), rename(2), open(2), rmdir(2), mknod(2), mkfifo(3), link(2), rm(1), unlink(8)

Linux								    1994-07-13								 REMOVE(3)

Linux and UNIX Man Pages

rmdir(2) [linux man page]

Check Out this Related Man Page