rmdir(1) [osf1 man page]
rmdir(1) General Commands Manual rmdir(1) NAME
rmdir - Removes a directory SYNOPSIS
rmdir [-p] [-s] directory... STANDARDS
Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards as follows: rmdir: XCU5.0 Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about industry standards and associated tags. OPTIONS
Removes all directories in a path name. For each directory argument, the directory entry it names is removed. If the directory argument includes more than one path name component, effects equivalent to the following command occur: rmdir -p $(dirname directory) That is, rmdir recursively removes each directory in the path name. OPERANDS
The path name of an empty directory to be removed. DESCRIPTION
The rmdir command removes a directory from the system. The directory must be empty before you can remove it, and you must have write per- mission in its parent directory. Use the ls -al command to see if a directory is empty. If a directory and a subdirectory of that directory are specified in a single invocation of rmdir, the subdirectory must be specified before the parent directory so that the parent directory will be empty when rmdir tries to remove it. RESTRICTIONS
A directory must be empty before you can remove it, and you must have write permission in its parent directory. If the -p option is used, all directories in the path must be empty except for the directory being recursively removed. EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned: Each directory specified by directory operand was successfully removed. An error occurred. EXAMPLES
To empty and remove a directory, enter: rm mydir/* mydir/.* rmdir mydir This removes the contents of mydir, then removes the empty directory. The rm command displays an error message about trying to remove the directories . (dot) and .. (dot dot), and then rmdir removes them. Note that rm mydir/* mydir/.* first removes files with names that do not begin with a (dot), then those with names that do begin with a (dot). You may not realize that the directory contains file names that begin with a (dot) because the ls command does not normally list them unless you use the -a option to see the files whose names begin with a (dot). To remove all of the directories in the path name a/b/c, enter: rmdir -p a/b/c Use a command like this one if directory a in the current directory is empty except that it contains a directory b and a/b is empty except that it contains a directory c. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables affect the execution of rmdir: Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value from the default locale is used. If any of the internationalization vari- ables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of the variables had been defined. If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the other internationalization variables. Determines the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multibyte characters in arguments). Determines the locale for the for- mat and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error. Determines the location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MESSAGES. SEE ALSO
Commands: mkdir(1), ls(1), rm(1) Functions: rmdir(2), unlink(2), remove(3) Standards: standards(5) rmdir(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
RMDIR(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual RMDIR(1P) PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the correspond- ing Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux. NAME
rmdir - remove directories SYNOPSIS
rmdir [-p] dir... DESCRIPTION
The rmdir utility shall remove the directory entry specified by each dir operand. For each dir operand, the rmdir utility shall perform actions equivalent to the rmdir() function called with the dir operand as its only argument. Directories shall be processed in the order specified. If a directory and a subdirectory of that directory are specified in a single invo- cation of the rmdir utility, the application shall specify the subdirectory before the parent directory so that the parent directory will be empty when the rmdir utility tries to remove it. OPTIONS
The rmdir utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines. The following option shall be supported: -p Remove all directories in a pathname. For each dir operand: 1. The directory entry it names shall be removed. 2. If the dir operand includes more than one pathname component, effects equivalent to the following command shall occur: rmdir -p $(dirname dir) OPERANDS
The following operand shall be supported: dir A pathname of an empty directory to be removed. STDIN
Not used. INPUT FILES
None. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of rmdir: LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.) LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables. LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments). LC_MESSAGES Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error. NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES . ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default. STDOUT
Not used. STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages. OUTPUT FILES
None. EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None. EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned: 0 Each directory entry specified by a dir operand was removed successfully. >0 An error occurred. CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default. The following sections are informative. APPLICATION USAGE
The definition of an empty directory is one that contains, at most, directory entries for dot and dot-dot. EXAMPLES
If a directory a in the current directory is empty except it contains a directory b and a/b is empty except it contains a directory c: rmdir -p a/b/c removes all three directories. RATIONALE
On historical System V systems, the -p option also caused a message to be written to the standard output. The message indicated whether the whole path was removed or whether part of the path remained for some reason. The STDERR section requires this diagnostic when the entire path specified by a dir operand is not removed, but does not allow the status message reporting success to be written as a diagnostic. The rmdir utility on System V also included a -s option that suppressed the informational message output by the -p option. This option has been omitted because the informational message is not specified by this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001. FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None. SEE ALSO
rm, the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, remove(), rmdir(), unlink() COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technol- ogy -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html . IEEE
/The Open Group 2003 RMDIR(1P)