RMDIR(2) System Calls Manual RMDIR(2)
NAME
rmdir - remove a directory file
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int
rmdir(const char *path);
DESCRIPTION
Rmdir() removes a directory file whose name is given by path. The direc-
tory must not have any entries other than `.' and `..'.
RETURN VALUES
A 0 is returned if the remove succeeds; otherwise a -1 is returned and an
error code is stored in the global location errno.
ERRORS
The named file is removed unless:
[ENOTDIR] A component of the path is not a directory.
[ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} charac-
ters, or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} char-
acters.
[ENOENT] The named directory does not exist.
[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in translat-
ing the pathname.
[ENOTEMPTY] The named directory contains files other than `.' and
`..' in it.
[EACCES] Search permission is denied for a component of the
path prefix.
[EACCES] Write permission is denied on the directory containing
the link to be removed.
[EPERM] The directory containing the directory to be removed
is marked sticky, and neither the containing directory
nor the directory to be removed are owned by the
effective user ID.
[EBUSY] The directory to be removed is the mount point for a
mounted file system.
[EIO] An I/O error occurred while deleting the directory
entry or deallocating the inode.
[EROFS] The directory entry to be removed resides on a read-
only file system.
[EFAULT] Path points outside the process's allocated address
space.
SEE ALSO
mkdir(2), unlink(2)
HISTORY
The rmdir() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.
4.2 Berkeley Distribution June 4, 1993 4.2 Berkeley Distribution