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 to indicate the error.

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 permis‐
              sion.  (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.

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.

SEE ALSO
       rm(1), rmdir(1), chdir(2), chmod(2), mkdir(2), rename(2), unlink(2), unlinkat(2)

Linux                                                                          2021-03-22                                                                       RMDIR(2)