NAME

rmdir() − remove a directory file

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

int rmdir(const char *path);

DESCRIPTION

The rmdir() system call removes a directory file whose name is given by path. The directory must be empty (except for the files .  and ..) before it can be removed. 

RETURN VALUE

rmdir() returns the following values:

 0 Successful completion. 

-1 Failure.  errno is set to indicate the error. 

ERRORS

If rmdir() fails, errno is set to one of the following values. 

[EACCES] A component of the path prefix denies search permission. 

[EACCES] Write permission is denied on the directory containing the link to be removed. 

[EACCES] The process does not have read/write access permission to the parent directory. 

[EBUSY] The directory to be removed is the mount point for a mounted file system. 

[EEXIST] The named directory is not empty.  It contains files other than .  and ... 

[EFAULT] path points outside the process’s allocated address space.  The reliable detection of this error is implementation-dependent. 

[EINVAL] The path is .. 

[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the path name. 

[ENAMETOOLONG]
The length of the specified path name exceeds PATH_MAX bytes, or the length of a component of the path name exceeds NAME_MAX bytes while _POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect. 

[ENOENT] The named file does not exist. 

[ENOTDIR] A component of the path is not a directory. 

[EPERM] The directory containing the directory to be removed has the sticky bit set and neither the containing directory nor the directory to be removed are owned by the effective user ID. 

[EROFS] The directory entry to be removed resides on a read-only file system. 

AUTHOR

rmdir() was developed by the University of California, Berkeley and HP. 

SEE ALSO

mkdir(2), unlink(2), remove(3C). 

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

rmdir(): AES, SVID2, SVID3, XPG3, XPG4, FIPS 151-2, POSIX.1

Hewlett-Packard Company  —  HP-UX Release 10.20:  July 1996