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RMDIR(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual RMDIR(3P)
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
implementation of this interface may differ (consult the
corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or
the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
rmdir — remove a directory
#include <unistd.h>
int rmdir(const char *path);
The rmdir() function shall remove a directory whose name is given by
path. The directory shall be removed only if it is an empty
directory.
If the directory is the root directory or the current working
directory of any process, it is unspecified whether the function
succeeds, or whether it shall fail and set errno to [EBUSY].
If path names a symbolic link, then rmdir() shall fail and set errno
to [ENOTDIR].
If the path argument refers to a path whose final component is either
dot or dot-dot, rmdir() shall fail.
If the directory's link count becomes 0 and no process has the
directory open, the space occupied by the directory shall be freed
and the directory shall no longer be accessible. If one or more
processes have the directory open when the last link is removed, the
dot and dot-dot entries, if present, shall be removed before rmdir()
returns and no new entries may be created in the directory, but the
directory shall not be removed until all references to the directory
are closed.
If the directory is not an empty directory, rmdir() shall fail and
set errno to [EEXIST] or [ENOTEMPTY].
Upon successful completion, rmdir() shall mark for update the last
data modification and last file status change timestamps of the
parent directory.
Upon successful completion, the function rmdir() shall return 0.
Otherwise, −1 shall be returned, and errno set to indicate the error.
If −1 is returned, the named directory shall not be changed.
The rmdir() function shall fail if:
EACCES Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix,
or write permission is denied on the parent directory of the
directory to be removed.
EBUSY The directory to be removed is currently in use by the system
or some process and the implementation considers this to be an
error.
[EEXIST] or [ENOTEMPTY]
The path argument names a directory that is not an empty
directory, or there are hard links to the directory other
than dot or a single entry in dot-dot.
EINVAL The path argument contains a last component that is dot.
EIO A physical I/O error has occurred.
ELOOP A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during
resolution of the path argument.
ENAMETOOLONG
The length of a component of a pathname is longer than
{NAME_MAX}.
ENOENT A component of path does not name an existing file, or
the path argument names a nonexistent directory or points
to an empty string.
ENOTDIR A component of path names an existing file that is
neither a directory nor a symbolic link to a directory.
[EPERM] or [EACCES]
The S_ISVTX flag is set on the directory containing the
file referred to by the path argument and the process
does not satisfy the criteria specified in the Base
Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 4.2,
Directory Protection.
EROFS The directory entry to be removed resides on a read-only
file system.
The rmdir() function may fail if:
ELOOP More than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered during
resolution of the path argument.
ENAMETOOLONG
The length of a pathname exceeds {PATH_MAX}, or pathname
resolution of a symbolic link produced an intermediate result
with a length that exceeds {PATH_MAX}.
The following sections are informative.
Removing a Directory
The following example shows how to remove a directory named
/home/cnd/mod1.
#include <unistd.h>
int status;
...
status = rmdir("/home/cnd/mod1");
None.
The rmdir() and rename() functions originated in 4.2 BSD, and they
used [ENOTEMPTY] for the condition when the directory to be removed
does not exist or new already exists. When the 1984 /usr/group
standard was published, it contained [EEXIST] instead. When these
functions were adopted into System V, the 1984 /usr/group standard
was used as a reference. Therefore, several existing applications and
implementations support/use both forms, and no agreement could be
reached on either value. All implementations are required to supply
both [EEXIST] and [ENOTEMPTY] in <errno.h> with distinct values, so
that applications can use both values in C-language case statements.
The meaning of deleting pathname/dot is unclear, because the name of
the file (directory) in the parent directory to be removed is not
clear, particularly in the presence of multiple links to a directory.
The POSIX.1‐1990 standard was silent with regard to the behavior of
rmdir() when there are multiple hard links to the directory being
removed. The requirement to set errno to [EEXIST] or [ENOTEMPTY]
clarifies the behavior in this case.
If the current working directory of the process is being removed,
that should be an allowed error.
Virtually all existing implementations detect [ENOTEMPTY] or the case
of dot-dot. The text in Section 2.3, Error Numbers about returning
any one of the possible errors permits that behavior to continue. The
[ELOOP] error may be returned if more than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic
links are encountered during resolution of the path argument.
None.
Section 2.3, Error Numbers, mkdir(3p), remove(3p), rename(3p),
unlink(3p)
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 4.2, Directory
Protection, unistd.h(0p)
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information
Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open
Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open
Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1
applied.) 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.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the
source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 RMDIR(3P)
Pages that refer to this page: unistd.h(0p), rm(1p), rmdir(1p), remove(3p), rename(3p), unlink(3p)
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