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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 path-
            name did not allow search permission.   (See  also  path_resolu-
            tion(7).

     EBUSY  pathname  is currently in use by the system or some process that
            prevents its removal.  On Linux, this  means  pathname  is  cur-
            rently  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 dan-
            gling 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.

CONFORMING TO

     POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, SVr4, 4.3BSD.

BUGS

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