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RMDIR(2)                   Linux Programmer's Manual                  RMDIR(2)

NAME
       rmdir - delete a directory
SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>
       int rmdir(const char *pathname);
DESCRIPTION
       rmdir() deletes a directory, which must be empty.
RETURN VALUE
       On  success,  zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
       set appropriately.
ERRORS
       EACCES Write access  to  the  directory  containing  pathname  was  not
              allowed,  or  one of the directories in the path prefix of path-
              name did not allow search permission.   (See  also  path_resolu-
              tion(7).
       EBUSY  pathname  is currently in use by the system or some process that
              prevents its removal.  On Linux this means pathname is currently
              used  as  a  mount point or is the root directory of the calling
              process.
       EFAULT pathname points outside your accessible address space.
       EINVAL pathname has .  as last component.
       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving pathname.
       ENAMETOOLONG
              pathname was too long.
       ENOENT A directory component in pathname does not exist or  is  a  dan-
              gling symbolic link.
       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.
       ENOTDIR
              pathname,  or  a  component  used as a directory in pathname, is
              not, in fact, a directory.
       ENOTEMPTY
              pathname contains entries other than . and .. ; or, pathname has
              ..  as its final component.  POSIX.1-2001 also allows EEXIST for
              this condition.
       EPERM  The directory containing pathname has the sticky  bit  (S_ISVTX)
              set  and  the process's effective user ID is neither the user ID
              of the file to be deleted nor that of the  directory  containing
              it,  and the process is not privileged (Linux: does not have the
              CAP_FOWNER capability).
       EPERM  The file system containing pathname does not support the removal
              of directories.
       EROFS  pathname refers to a directory on a read-only file system.
CONFORMING TO
       SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.
BUGS
       Infelicities  in  the  protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected
       disappearance of directories which are still being used.
SEE ALSO
       rm(1), rmdir(1), chdir(2), chmod(2),  mkdir(2),  rename(2),  unlink(2),
       unlinkat(2)
COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.53 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                             2008-05-08                          RMDIR(2)