freebsd man page for rmdir

RMDIR(1)						    BSD General Commands Manual 						  RMDIR(1)

NAME
     rmdir -- remove directories

SYNOPSIS
     rmdir [-pv] directory ...

DESCRIPTION
     The rmdir utility removes the directory entry specified by each directory argument, provided it is empty.

     Arguments are processed in the order given.  In order to remove both a parent directory and a subdirectory of that parent, the subdirectory
     must be specified first so the parent directory is empty when rmdir tries to remove it.

     The following option is available:

     -p      Each directory argument is treated as a pathname of which all components will be removed, if they are empty, starting with the last
	     most component.  (See rm(1) for fully non-discriminant recursive removal.)

     -v      Be verbose, listing each directory as it is removed.

EXIT STATUS
     The rmdir utility exits with one of the following values:

     0	     Each directory entry specified by a directory operand referred to an empty directory and was removed successfully.

     >0      An error occurred.

EXAMPLES
     Remove the directory foobar, if it is empty:

	   $ rmdir foobar

     Remove all directories up to and including cow, stopping at the first non-empty directory (if any):

	   $ rmdir -p cow/horse/monkey

SEE ALSO
     rm(1)

STANDARDS
     The rmdir utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') compatible.

HISTORY
     A rmdir command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

BSD
								  March 15, 2013							       BSD