rmdir(2)
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rmdir System Call
Remove a directory file.
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SYNTAX
int rmdir (path)
char * path;
PARAMETERS
path Address of a pathname.
DESCRIPTION
<Path> points to a pathname naming an existing directory. Rmdir
removes the directory from the filename store. If <path> refers
to a symbolic link, the symbolic link is removed, not the target
of the symbolic link. The directory named cannot be the calling
process's current working directory or a directory containing a
mounted file system. The directory should have no entries but
'.' and '..', referring to the directory itself and its parent.
There must be exactly two links to the directory -- its own '.'
and the entry for it in its parent. Note that precluding the
removal of the working directory and non-empty directories
ensures that the current root directory cannot be removed; if the
root were empty, it would have to be the current working
directory.
The directory is removed from the filename store by deleting the
link to it in its parent.
The attributes of the parent change as follows: The number of
links (st_nlink) is decremented, reflecting the fact that the
'..' of the removed directory will no longer refer to the parent.
The time of last attribute change (st_ctime) is set to the
current time.
The attributes of the directory change as follows: Its size
(st_size) and number of links (st_nlink) are set to 0. The time
last modified (st_mtime) and time of last attribute change
(st_ctime) are set to the current time.
Some process may have the directory open for reading at the time
it is removed. Upon attempting the next read operation, that
process will encounter the end-of-file condition, as the
directory's size is now zero.
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rmdir(2)
When the last reference to the directory is deleted (examples of
references are when some process has the directory open or it is
the working or root directory for a process), the directory is
removed from the filesystem.
If the call fails, the directory is not removed, and the
attributes of the directory and its parent are unchanged.
ACCESS CONTROL
The calling process must have write access to the parent of the
directory being removed.
The process must have permission to resolve <path>.
RETURN VALUE
0 The directory was successfully deleted.
-1 An error occurred. Errno is set to indicate the
error.
EXCEPTIONS
Errno may be set to one of the following error codes:
EACCES Write permission is denied on the directory
containing the link to be removed.
ENOTDIR The file to be removed is not a directory.
EBUSY The directory to be removed is currently in use by
the system (as a mount point for a mounted file
system device, or mounted on a remote system).
EINVAL The directory to be removed is the current working
directory.
EEXIST The named directory contains files other than "."
and ".." in it.
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rmdir(2)
EEXIST There are not exactly 2 links to the directory.
EROFS The directory entry to be removed resides on a
file system mounted read-only.
ENOENT The file the pathname resolved to does not exist.
ENOENT A non-terminal component of the pathname does not
exist.
ENOTDIR A non-terminal component of the pathname was not a
directory or symbolic link.
ENAMETOOLONG The pathname exceeds the length limit for
pathnames.
ENAMETOOLONG A component of the pathname exceeds the length
limit for filenames.
ENOMEM There are not enough system resources to resolve
the pathname or to expand a symbolic link.
ELOOP The number of symbolic links encountered during
pathname resolution exceeded MAXSYMLINKS. A
symbolic link cycle is suspected.
EPERM The pathname contains a character not in the
allowed character set.
EFAULT The pathname does not completely reside in the
process's address space or the pathname does not
terminate in the process's address space.
SEE ALSO
The related manual sections: mkdir(1), rm(1), rmdir(1),
mkdir(2), unlink(2),
stat(5).
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