RMDIR(2) System Calls RMDIR(2)
NAME
rmdir - remove a directory
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int rmdir(
const char *path);
DESCRIPTION
The
rmdir() function removes the directory named by the path name pointed
to by
path. The directory must not have any entries other than "
." and
"
..".
If the directory's link count becomes zero and no process has the
directory open, the space occupied by the directory is freed and the
directory is no longer accessible. If one or more processes have the
directory open when the last link is removed, the "
." and "
.." entries,
if present, are removed before
rmdir() returns and no new entries may be
created in the directory, but the directory is not removed until all
references to the directory have been closed.
Upon successful completion
rmdir() marks for update the
st_ctime and
st_mtime fields of the parent directory.
RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion,
0 is returned. Otherwise,
-1 is returned,
errno is set to indicate the error, and the named directory is not
changed.
ERRORS
The
rmdir() function will fail if:
EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path
prefix and {
PRIV_FILE_DAC_SEARCH} is not asserted in the
effective set of the calling process
Write permission is denied on the directory containing
the directory to be removed and {
PRIV_FILE_DAC_WRITE} is
not asserted.
The parent directory has the
S_ISVTX variable set, is not
owned by the user, and {
PRIV_FILE_OWNER} is not asserted.
The directory is not owned by the user and is not
writable by the user.
EBUSY The directory to be removed is the mount point for a
mounted file system.
EEXIST The directory contains entries other than those for "
."
and "
..".
EFAULT The
path argument points to an illegal address.
EINVAL The directory to be removed is the current directory, or
the final component of
path is "
.".
EILSEQ The path argument includes non-UTF8 characters and the
file system accepts only file names where all characters
are part of the UTF-8 character codeset.
EIO An I/O error occurred while accessing the file system.
ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating
path.
ENAMETOOLONG The length of the
path argument exceeds
PATH_MAX, or the
length of a
path component exceeds
NAME_MAX while
_POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect.
ENOENT The named directory does not exist or is the null
pathname.
ENOLINK The
path argument points to a remote machine, and the
connection to that machine is no longer active.
ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
EROFS The directory entry to be removed is part of a read-only
file system.
ATTRIBUTES
See
attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+--------------------+-------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+--------------------+-------------------+
|Interface Stability | Standard |
+--------------------+-------------------+
|MT-Level | Async-Signal-Safe |
+--------------------+-------------------+
SEE ALSO
mkdir(1),
rm(1),
mkdir(2),
attributes(7),
privileges(7),
standards(7) May 18, 2007
RMDIR(2)